Human calcitonin receptor polypeptides and methods of use

ABSTRACT

Human calcitonin receptors have been cloned, sequenced and expressed by recombinant means. The receptors and antibodies thereto may be used in screening systems to identify agonists and antagonists of human calcitonin receptors, thereby providing means for treating and preventing abnormal bone resorption, as well as in methods of diagnosis.

RELATED CASES

This application is a divisional of Ser. No. 08/100,887, filed Aug. 2, 1993 (now abandoned), which is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 07/954,804, filed Sep. 30, 1992 (now abandoned), which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Bone is a dynamic tissue, and homeostasis requires a balance between the formation of new bone and the resorption of previously formed bone. Calcitonin, a peptide hormone secreted by the thyroid and thymus, plays an important role in maintaining bone homeostasis. Calcitonin binds to osteoclasts, cells in the bone tissue which mediate bone resorption. Calcitonin immobilizes osteoclasts, thus inhibiting bone resorption with a resultant decrease in the amount of calcium released by bone into the serum. The inhibition of bone resorption has been exploited by using calcitonin as a treatment for osteoporosis.

The calcitonin receptor is believed to be a member of the G-protein coupled receptor family. It has been demonstrated that activation of the receptor results in stimulation of two independent intracellular pathways, the cyclic AMP and inositol triphosphate pathways (Chabre et al., Molec. Endocrin. 6(4):551-556, 1992). The cloning of the parathyroid hormone, porcine calcitonin, secretin and glucagon receptors has established the possibility that a new family of G protein-coupled receptors exists. These receptors show little homology to the previously known G protein coupled receptors that included the beta adrenergic receptor, the serotonin receptor and the glutamate receptors.

At the present time, salmon calcitonin is preferred over human calcitonin for treatment of osteoporosis. The worldwide market for salmon calcitonin exceeds $500 million annually. Salmon calcitonin has been shown to be considerably more effective in arresting bone resorption than human forms of calcitonin. There are several hypotheses for why salmon calcitonin is more potent than human calcitonin in treatment for osteoporosis. These hypotheses include: 1) salmon calcitonin is more resistant to degradation, 2) salmon calcitonin has a lower metabolic clearance rate (MCR) and 3) salmon calcitonin may have a slightly different conformation, resulting in a higher affinity for bone receptor sites.

Despite the advantages associated with the use of salmon calcitonin for treatment of osteoporosis in humans, there are also disadvantages. The average cost can exceed $200 per month, and treatment involves prophylactic administration for 5 or more years. Another problem is that, in the United States, calcitonin must be administered by injection. In addition, some patients develop antibodies to non-human calcitonin. Therefore, new analogs of salmon or human calcitonin that are potent inhibitors of bone resorption, less expensive, more convenient to administer and non-immunogenic are needed.

The discovery and testing of possible compounds for use as calcitonin analogs require high through-put screening systems. Such a system would preferably use a cellular target, such as a cultured cell line containing high levels of the appropriate calcitonin receptor, to identify and measure responses to putative analogs. Quite surprisingly, the present invention provides human calcitonin receptors for use in screening systems for identifying calcitonin analogs, and fulfills other related needs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides isolated and substantially pure preparations of human calcitonin receptor, recombinant human calcitonin receptor, and polypeptide fragments thereof. Within certain embodiments the receptors are coupled to a G protein in vertebrate cells, bind calcitonin and thereby activate adenylate cyclase, and are capable of stimulating inositol phosphate metabolism. Within other embodiments, the receptors are in a truncated form. Having provided such recombinant receptors in isolated and purified form, the invention also provides monoclonal antibodies to the receptors, the calcitonin binding domains, and other fragments.

In another aspect the invention provides the ability to produce human calcitonin receptors and polypeptides or fragments thereof by recombinant means, preferably in cultured eukaryotic cells. The expressed receptors or fragments may or may not have the biological activity of native receptor, and may or may not be coupled to a G protein in the cell used for expression. Accordingly, isolated and purified polynucleotides are described which code for human calcitonin receptors and fragments thereof, where the polynucleotides may be in the form of DNA, such as cDNA, or RNA. Based on these sequences probes may be used to hybridize and identify the human calcitonin receptor gene. The probes may be full length cDNA or as small as from 14 to 25 nucleotide, more often though from about 40 to about 50 or more nucleotides.

In related embodiments the invention concerns DNA constructs which comprise a transcriptional promoter, a DNA sequence which encodes the human calcitonin receptor or fragment, and a transcriptional terminator, each operably linked for expression of the receptor. For expression the construct may also contain at least one signal sequence. The constructs are used to transform or transfect host cells, preferably mammalian cells and more preferably those which do not express substantial amounts of endogenous calcitonin receptor. When bound by an appropriate ligand such as calcitonin, the receptor may activate adenylate cyclase in the host cell via coupling to G protein. Further, for large scale production the expressed receptor may also be isolated from the cells by, for example, affinity purification.

Cells which express human calcitonin receptor can be used to identify compounds which can alter the calcitonin receptor-mediated metabolism of a eukaryotic cell. Compounds may be screened for binding to the receptor, and/or for effecting a change in receptor-mediated metabolism in the host cell. Agonists and/or antagonists of the receptors may also be screened in cell-free systems using purified receptors or binding fragments thereof for the effect on ligand-receptor interaction, or using reconstituted systems such as micelles, which also provide the ability to assess metabolic changes. The compounds identified according to the invention can serve as lead compounds for subsequent development or screening of drugs useful in the treatment and prevention of bone resorption related disorders, such as osteoporosis, Paget's disease, and the like.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates the amino acid sequence of a human calcitonin receptor (Seq. ID No. 1), with putative transmembrane domains overlined;

FIG. 2 is the vector ZEM1698;

FIG. 3 illustrates the results of a luciferase induction assay for a BHK cell line transfected to express a human calcitonin receptor, where cells were treated with human calcitonin (HcT), salmon calcitonin (ScT) or human CGRP (CGRP); and

FIG. 4 illustrates the results of a luciferase induction assay for a BHK cell line transfected to express a human calcitonin receptor, where cells were treated with human calcitonin (HcT), salmon calcitonin (ScT) or human CGRP (CGRP).

DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

The present invention presents the means to identify agonists and antagonists of the human calcitonin receptor-ligand interaction by providing isolated human calcitonin receptor molecules, recombinant human calcitonin receptor and the isolated polynucleotide sequences which encode the receptors. The term "human calcitonin receptor" refers to any protein which shares significant structural and functional homology with the calcitonin receptor set forth in the amino acid sequence of FIG. 1. Such a receptor may result when regions of a recombinantly prepared human calcitonin receptor are deleted or replaced in such a manner as to yield a protein having a similar function. Substantially homologous sequences, allelic variations, and natural mutants; induced point, deletion, and insertion mutants and alternatively expressed variants are also included. As used herein, substantially homologous means sequences which are at least 80%, preferably at least 90%, and more preferably 95% or more identical to sequences of the human cDNA sequences shown in Seq. ID No. 1. The essential functional aspects of the calcitonin receptor are that when inserted into a plasma membrane it is capable of binding human calcitonin, and that it is capable of initiating a cellular response in response to that binding.

Variants of the calcitonin receptor may be truncated, resulting in a receptor that binds human calcitonin but does not initiate a cellular response. The essential functional requirement of such a receptor variant is that it contain a ligand-binding domain capable of binding calcitonin.

Variants of the calcitonin receptor include variants having insertions located in a DNA sequence immediately following the first transmembrane region. While not wanting to bound by theory, certain of these variants may function as soluble forms of the calcitonin receptor. Soluble forms of other predominately transmembrane receptors have been found previously. For example, the luteinizing hormone receptor, a member of the seven-transmembrane G protein-coupled receptor family, has been shown to bind ligand in a truncated form that comprises only the extracellular domain of the receptor (Tsai-Morris et al. J. Biol. Chem. 265(32):19385-19388, 1990). It has been postulated that the truncated form of a receptor could bind ligand and affect the concentration of hormone available for interaction with target cells expressing the membrane-bound receptor.

Other receptor variants having insertions after the first transmembrane region are believed to remain anchored in the membrane but affect the signal transduction properties within the cell. In the case where the insertion results in a truncated variant of the receptor but the receptor remains membrane-bound, the intracellular signalling property of the receptor-ligand complex is essentially eliminated. A receptor without signal transducing capacity would serve a function similar to a soluble receptor, that is to alter the concentration of hormone that binds to signal transducing receptors without initiating a response in the intracellular signalling pathway and thereby limit the effect of ligand on the cell.

In the case where the variant receptor does not result in a truncated receptor, insertions may alter the cytoplasmic loop, the region correlated to interaction of the G protein-coupled receptor and G protein (Iismaa et al., Curt. Opinion Cell Biol. 4:195:202, 1992). Changes in the coupling of the G protein to the receptor affect the second messenger pathway by altering intracellular levels of cAMP, inositol triphosphate or calcium and ultimately can affect bone homeostasis. Specific tissues have been found to express receptor subtypes with different signal transduction properties. For example, metabotropic glutamate receptors include at least five different subtypes of receptors having varying effects on second messengers levels (Schoepp et al., TiPS 14:13-20, 1993). Metabotropic glutamate receptor subtypes have been isolated from a variety of different tissues including heart, lacrimal glands, intestine, trachea and hippocampus (Bonner, TIPS, Suppl. 11-15, 1989). Another instance where variant receptor subtypes may be preferentially expressed is in response to changes in the extracellular environment. The expression of the variant receptors result in changes in the cell's response to ligand. For example, many patients given long term treatment with calcitonin become resistant to the effects of the drug. In approximately 50% of these cases resistance is not accompanied with antibody formation (The Calcitonins: Physiology and Pharmacoloy, Azria ed. Karger, Basel, Su., 1989) and while such resistance is not clearly understood, it has been postulated that the long term exposure to increased levels of calcitonin may induce the expression of an alternative receptor subtype and thus change the cell's responsiveness to calcitonin. The calcitonin receptors and variants of the present invention provide valuable tools for studying cellular responses to calcitonin under a variety of conditions and for identifying compounds that regulate calcitonin-responsive cellular pathways.

By human calcitonin receptor "ligand" is meant a molecule capable of being bound by the ligand-binding domain of human calcitonin receptor, a human calcitonin receptor analog, or chimeric human calcitonin receptor as generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,609, incorporated by reference herein. The ligand may be chemically synthesized or may occur in nature, such as human or salmon calcitonin. Ligands may be grouped into agonists and antagonists. Agonists are those molecules whose binding to a receptor induces the response pathway within a cell. Antagonists are those molecules whose binding to a receptor blocks the induction of a response pathway within a cell.

"Isolated" human calcitonin receptor is meant to refer to human calcitonin receptor which is in other than its native environment such as an osteoclast, renal cell, lymphocyte, etc., including, for example, substantially pure human calcitonin receptor as defined hereinbelow. More generally, isolated is meant to include human calcitonin receptor as a heterologous component of a cell or other system. For example, human calcitonin receptor may be expressed by a cell transfected with a DNA construct which encodes human calcitonin receptor, separated from the cell and added to micelles which contain other selected receptors. In another example described below, human calcitonin receptor is expressed by a cell which has been co-transfected with a gene encoding luciferase. Thus, in this context, the environment of isolated human calcitonin receptor is not as it occurs in its native state, particularly when it is present in a system as an exogenous component.

The invention provides cloned human calcitonin receptor coding sequences which are capable of expressing the human calcitonin receptor protein. Complementary DNA encoding human calcitonin receptor may be obtained by constructing a cDNA library from mRNA obtained from, for example, osteoclasts, breast carcinoma cells which are known to express the receptor, such as T-47D described hereinbelow, etc. The library may be screened with a labeled complementary oligonucleotide probe. Alternatively, the library may be screened by transcribing the library and injecting the resulting mRNA into appropriate eucaryotic cells and detecting, by functional assays, those transfected cells which express the human calcitonin receptor.

The present invention relates to successfully isolating cDNA encoding a human calcitonin receptor. With the human calcitonin receptor and cDNA clones thereof provided herein, nucleotide and amino acid sequences may be determined by conventional means, such as by dideoxy sequencing. See generally, Sambrook et al., Molecular Cloning. A Laboratory Manual, 2d ed., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., 1989, incorporated by reference herein. Based on the sequences herein provided, genomic or cDNA sequences encoding human calcitonin receptor may be obtained from libraries prepared from human cell sources according to well known procedures. For instance, using oligonucleotide probes from human calcitonin receptor, such as whole length cDNA or shorter probes of at least about fourteen nucleotides to twenty-five or more nucleotides in length; often as many as 40 to 50 nucleotides, DNA sequences encoding other human calcitonin receptor subtypes may be obtained. If partial clones are obtained, it is necessary to join them in proper reading frame to produce a full length clone, using such techniques as endonuclease cleavage, ligation and loopout mutagenesis.

A DNA sequence encoding human calcitonin receptor is inserted into a suitable expression vector, which in turn is used to transfect eukaryotic cells. Expression vectors for use in carrying out the present invention will comprise a promoter capable of directing the transcription of a cloned DNA and a transcriptional terminator.

To direct proteins of the present invention for transport to the plasma membrane, at least one signal sequence is operably linked to the DNA sequence of interest. The signal sequence may be derived from the human calcitonin receptor coding sequence, from other signal sequences described in the art, or synthesized de novo.

Host cells for use in practicing the present invention include mammalian, avian, plant, insect and fungal cells, but preferably mammalian cells. Fungal cells, including species of yeast (e.g., Saccharomyces spp., particularly S. cerevisiae, Schizosaccharomyces spp.) or filamentous fungi (e.g., Aspergillus spp., Neurospora spp.) may be used as host cells within the present invention. Suitable yeast vectors for use in the present invention include YRp7 (Struhl et al., Proc. Natl, Acad. Sci. USA 76:1035-1039, 1978), YEp13 (Broach et al., Gene 8: 121-133, 1979), POT vectors (Kawasaki et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,373, which is incorporated by reference herein), pJDB249 and pJDB219 (Beggs, Nature 275:104-108, 1978) and derivatives thereof. Such vectors will generally include a selectable marker, which may be one of any number of genes that exhibit a dominant phenotype for which a phenotypic assay exists to enable transformants to be selected. Preferred selectable markers are those that complement host cell auxotrophy, provide antibiotic resistance or enable a cell to utilize specific carbon sources, and include LEU2 (Broach et al., ibid.), URA3 (Botstein et al., Gene 8: 17, 1979), HIS3 (Struhl et al., ibid.) or POT1 (Kawasaki et al., ibid.). Another suitable selectable marker is the CAT gene, which confers chloramphenicol resistance to yeast cells.

Additional vectors, promoters and terminators which can be used in expressing the receptors of the invention in yeast are known in the art and are reviewed by, for example, Emr (Meth. Enzymol. 185:231-279, 1990), incorporated herein by reference. The receptors of the invention may be expressed in Aspergillus spp. (McKnight and Upshall, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,935,349, which is incorporated herein by reference). Useful promoters include those derived from Aspergillus nidulans glycolytic genes, such as the ADH3 promoter (McKnight et al., EMBO J. 4:2093-2099, 1985) and the tpiA promoter. An example of a suitable terminator is the ADH3 terminator (McKnight et al., ibid.). Techniques for transforming fungi are well known in the literature, and have been described, for instance by Beggs (ibid.), Hinnen et al. (Proc. Natl. Acad, Sci. USA 75:1929-1933, 1978), Yelton et al. (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 81:1740-1747, 1984), and Russell (Nature 301:167-169, 1983) each of which are incorporated herein by reference.

A variety of higher eukaryotic cells may serve as host cells for expression of the human calcitonin receptor. Cultured mammalian cells, such as BHK, N1E-115 (Liles et al., J. Biol. Chem. 261:5307-5313, 1986), PC 12 and COS-1 (ATCC CRL 1650) are preferred. Preferred BHK cell lines are the tk⁻⁻ ts13 BHK cell line (Waechter and Baserga, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 79:1106-1110, 1982) and the BHK 570 cell line (deposited with the American Type Culture Collection, 12301 Parklawn Dr., Rockville, Md. under accession number CRL 10314). A tk⁻⁻ BHK cell line is available as ATCC CRL 1632. It is preferred to use host cells that do not have endogenous calcitonin receptor.

Mammalian expression vectors for use in carrying out the present invention will include a promoter capable of directing the transcription of a cloned gene or cDNA. Preferred promoters include viral promoters and cellular promoters. Viral promoters include the immediate early cytomegalovirus promoter (Boshart et al., Cell 41: 521-530, 1985) and the SV40 promoter (Subramani et al., Mol. Cell. Biol. 1: 854-864, 1981). Cellular promoters include the mouse metallothionein-1 promoter (Palmiter et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,579,821), a mouse V.sub.κ promoter (Bergman et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 81: 7041-7045, 1983; Grant et al., Nuc. Acids Res. 15: 5496, 1987) and a mouse V_(H) promoter (Lob et al., Cell 33: 85-93, 1983). A particularly preferred promoter is the major late promoter from Adenovirus 2 (Kaufman and Sharp, Mol. Cell. Biol. 2: 1304-13199, 1982). Such expression vectors may also contain a set of RNA splice sites located downstream from the promoter and upstream from the DNA sequence encoding the peptide or protein of interest. Preferred RNA splice sites may be obtained from adenovirus and/or immunoglobulin genes.

Also contained in the expression vectors is a polyadenylation signal located downstream of the coding sequence of interest. Polyadenylation signals include the early or late polyadenylation signals from SV40 (Kaufman and Sharp, ibid.), the polyadenylation signal from the Adenovirus 5 E1B region and the human growth hormone gene terminator (DeNoto et al., Nuc. Acids Res. 9: 3719-3730, 1981). The expression vectors may include a noncoding vital leader sequence, such as the Adenovirus 2 tripartite leader, located between the promoter and the RNA splice sites. Preferred vectors may also include enhancer sequences, such as the SV40 enhancer and the mouse μ enhancer (Gillies, Cell 33: 717-728, 1983). Expression vectors may also include sequences encoding the adenovirus VA RNAs.

Cloned DNA sequences may be introduced into cultured mammalian cells by, for example, calcium phosphate-mediated transfection (Wigler et al., Cell 14: 725, 1978; Corsaro and Pearson, Somatic Cell Genetics 7: 603, 1981; Graham and Van der Eb, Virology 52: 456, 1973.) Other techniques for introducing cloned DNA sequences into mammalian cells, such as electroporation (Neumann et al., EMBO J. 1: 841-845, 1982), may also be used. In order to identify cells that have integrated the cloned DNA, a selectable marker is generally introduced into the cells along with the gene or cDNA of interest. Preferred selectable markers for use in cultured mammalian cells include genes that confer resistance to drugs, such as neomycin, hygromycin, and methotrexate. The selectable marker may be an amplifiable selectable marker. A preferred amplifiable selectable marker is the DHFR gene. Selectable markers are reviewed by Thilly (Mammalian Cell Technology, Butterworth Publishers, Stoneham, Mass., which is incorporated herein by reference). The choice of selectable markers is well within the level of ordinary skill in the art.

Selectable markers may be introduced into the cell on a separate plasmid at the same time as the gene of interest, or they may be introduced on the same plasmid. If on the same plasmid, the selectable marker and the gene of interest may be under the control of different promoters or the same promoter, the latter arrangement producing a dicistronic message. Constructs of this type are known in the art (for example, Levinson and Simonsen, U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,339). It may also be advantageous to add additional DNA, known as "carrier DNA" to the mixture which is introduced into the cells.

Transfected mammalian cells are allowed to grow for a period of time, typically 1-2 days, to begin expressing the DNA sequence(s) of interest. Drug selection is then applied to select for growth of cells that are expressing the selectable marker in a stable fashion. For cells that have been transfected with an amplifiable selectable marker the drug concentration may be increased in a stepwise manner to select for increased copy number of the cloned sequences, thereby increasing expression levels.

Promoters, terminators and methods suitable for introducing expression vectors encoding recombinant human calcitonin receptor into plant, arian and insect cells are known in the art. The use of baculoviruses, for example, as vectors for expressing heterologous DNA sequences in insect cells has been reviewed by Atkinson et al. (Pestic. Sci. 28: 215-224,1990). The use of Agrobacterium rhizogenes as vectors for expressing genes in plant cells has been reviewed by Sinkar et al. (J. Biosci. (Banglaore) 11: 47-58, 1987).

Host cells containing DNA constructs of the present invention are then cultured to produce recombinant human calcitonin receptor. The cells are cultured according to accepted methods in a culture medium containing nutrients required for growth of mammalian or other host cells. A variety of suitable media are known in the art and generally include a carbon source, a nitrogen source, essential amino acids, vitamins, minerals and growth factors. The growth medium will generally select for cells containing the DNA construct by, for example, drug selection or deficiency in an essential nutrient which is complemented by the selectable marker on the DNA construct or co-transfected with the DNA construct.

The human calcitonin receptor produced according to the present invention may be purified from the recombinant expression systems or other sources using purification protocols that employ techniques generally available to those skilled in the art. The most convenient sources for obtaining large quantities of human calcitonin receptor are cells which express the recombinant receptor.

Purification may be achieved by conventional chemical purification means, such as liquid chromatography, lectin affinity chromatography, gradient centrifugation, and gel electrophoresis, among others. Methods of protein purification are known in the art (see generally, Scopes, R., Protein Purification, Springer-Verlag, N.Y. (1982), which is incorporated herein by reference) and may be applied to the purification of the human calcitonin receptor and particularly the recombinantly produced human calcitonin receptor described herein. In a preferred embodiment immunoaffinity chromatography is employed using antibodies directed against human calcitonin receptor. In another method of purification, the recombinant gene encoding human calcitonin receptor or portions thereof can be modified at the amino terminus, just behind a signal peptide, with a sequence coding for a small hydrophilic peptide, such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,703,004 and 4,782,137, incorporated herein by reference. Specific antibodies for the peptide facilitate rapid purification of human calcitonin receptor, and the short peptide can then be removed with enterokinase.

Thus, as discussed above, the present invention provides recombinant human calcitonin receptor isolated from its natural cellular environment, substantially free of other G protein coupled calcitonin receptors. Purified human calcitonin receptor is also provided. Substantially pure human calcitonin receptor of at least about 50% is preferred, at least about 70-80% more preferred, and 95-99% or more homogeneity most preferred, particularly for pharmaceutical uses. Once purified, partially or to homogeneity, as desired, the recombinant human calcitonin receptor may then be used to screen for agonist compounds, generate monoclonal antibodies, in assay procedures, etc.

In another aspect, the invention concerns polypeptides and fragments of recombinant human calcitonin receptor, including naturally occurring truncated receptor variants. Polypeptides and fragments of human calcitonin receptor may be isolated from recombinant expression systems or may be synthesized from the sequences provided herein by the solid phase method of Merrifield, Fed. Proc. 21:412 (1962), Merrifield, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 85:2149 (1963), or Barany and Merrifield, in The Peptides, vol. 2, pp. 1-284 (1979) Academic Press, N.Y., each of which are incorporated herein by reference, or by use of an automated peptide synthesizer. By "polypeptides" is meant a sequence of at least about 6 amino acids, typically 20-30 or more, up to 100-200 amino acids or more, including entire proteins. For example, the portion(s) of human calcitonin receptor protein which binds ligand may be identified by a variety of methods, such as by expressing various receptor polypeptide fragments by recombinant techniques or by treating purified recombinant receptor with a protease or a chemical agent to fragment it and determine which fragment is able to bind to labeled calcitonin in a ligand blot. Evidence indicates that a ligand binding domain is contained within about 150 N-terminal residues of the receptor. Polypeptides may then be synthesized and used as antigen, to inhibit ligand-human calcitonin receptor interaction, etc.

In another aspect, the invention provides means for regulating the human calcitonin receptor-ligand interaction, and thus treating, therapeutically and/or prophylactically, a disorder which can be linked directly or indirectly to human calcitonin receptor or to its natural ligand, calcitonin. By virtue of having the receptor of the invention, agonists or antagonists may be identified which stimulate, mimic or inhibit the interaction of human calcitonin with its receptor. With either agonists or antagonists the metabolism and reactivity of cells which express the receptor are controlled, thereby providing a means to abate or in some instances prevent the disease of interest, e.g., osteoporosis.

Thus, the invention provides screening procedures for identifying agonists or antagonists of events mediated by the calcitonin-human calcitonin receptor interaction. Such screening assays may employ a wide variety of formats, depending to some extent on which aspect of the ligand/receptor/G protein interaction is targeted. For example, such assays may be designed to identify compounds which bind to the receptor and thereby block or inhibit interaction of the receptor with the ligand. More preferably, other assays can be designed to identify compounds which can substitute for ligand and therefore stimulate human calcitonin receptor-mediated intracellular pathways. Yet other assays can be used to identify compounds which inhibit or facilitate the association of human calcitonin receptor to G protein and thereby mediate the cellular response to human calcitonin receptor ligand.

In one functional screening assay, human calcitonin receptor expressed within mammalian cells is functionally coupled to inositol metabolism. In this assay, compounds are screened for their relative affinity as receptor agonists or antagonists by comparing the relative receptor occupancy to the extent of ligand-induced stimulation or inhibition of second messenger metabolism. For example, activation of phospholipase C leads to increased inositol monophosphate metabolism. Means for measuring inositol monophosphate metabolism are generally described in Subers and Nathanson, J. Mol. Cell, Cardiol. 20: 131-140 (1988), incorporated herein by reference.

The screening procedure can be used to identify reagents such as calcitonin analogues or lead compounds for use in further drug screening which specifically bind to the receptor and substantially affect (stimulate or inhibit) the receptor's ability to stimulate G-protein mediated activation of adenyl cyclase, for example.

The membrane-bound calcitonin receptor of the present invention also appears to function as a calcium receptor. Baby hamster kidney cells expressing recombinant calcitonin receptor were found to respond to millimolar increases in extracellular calcium via a rapid and sustained elevation in Ca²⁺ !_(i), whereas three calcitonin receptor-negative baby hamster kidney cell lines, two of which express recombinant receptors related to the calcitonin receptor, showed no sensitivity to changes in extracellular calcium. The calcitonin receptor of the present invention is therefore a useful tool for identifying compounds that can modulate, mimic or inhibit the effects of extracellular calcium on cellular metabolism. Experimental evidence indicates that extracellular calcium regulates parathyroid hormone-secreting chief cells and calcitonin-secreting thyroid C-cells, which secrete their respect hormones in response to serum calcium changes (Zaidi, Biosci. Rep. 10:493-506, 1990). Evidence also indicates that osteoclasts express a cell-surface receptor that senses millimolar increases in extracellular calcium and inhibits bone resorption via an increase in osteoclast Ca²⁺ !_(i) concentrations (Zaidi, ibid; Alam et al., Biosci. Rep. 12:369-380, 1992; MacIntyre et al. in Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, Baker, ed., 83:411-439, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1988; Malgaroli et al., J. Biol. Chem. 264:14342-14347, 1989; Zaidi et al., Biochem, Biophys. Res. Commun. 164:807, 1990).

Truncated calcitonin receptor variants that function as soluble receptors can be used in a variety of screening assays. For example, a soluble receptor may used to screen peptide or non-peptide libraries that have been affixed to a solid support, such as latex, polystyrene beads (Interfacial Dynamics Corp. Portland, Ore.), magnetic particles (Advanced Magnetics, Cambridge, Mass.) and nylon balls (Hendry et al., J. Immunological Meth., 35:285-296, 1980). For example, it is possible to screen large peptide libraries that are synthesized by distributing a pool of resin beads into separate reaction vessels each with a single amino acid, coupling the amino acids to the beads and then repooling the beads. The cycle is repeated multiple times to extend the peptide chain. Each bead contains a single peptide chain species. An acceptor molecule (e.g. soluble receptor) is coupled to a reporter enzyme (e.g. fluorescein) and allowed to react with peptide chain-coupled beads. The beads that bind receptor are identified by the activation of the reporter enzyme and separated from the pool. The receptor is removed by washing in an appropriate solvent, the peptide chain-coupled bead is placed in a microsequencer, and the amino acid sequence is analyzed (Lam et al., Nature 354:82-84, 1991). In another approach, the soluble form of a receptor may be attached to the solid support and ligand passed over the receptor to screen for compounds that bind and form a complex. This screening method is analogous to immobilizing antigens or antibodies to a solid support such as a nylon bead for use in solid-phase enzyme-linked immunoassays (Hendry et al., ibid, 1980). Such methods are well known in the art. The truncated calcitonin receptor variants may also be used to screen peptide libraries as described in WO 91/19818 and WO 91/05058, incorporated herein by reference.

Monoclonal antibodies which bind human calcitonin receptor are also provided by the present invention. The production of non-human monoclonal antibodies, e.g., murine, is well known (see, e.g., Harlow et al., Antibodies A Laboratory Manual, Cold Spring Harbor Press, pp. 139-240, 1989, incorporated herein by reference) and may be accomplished by, for example, immunizing the animal with the purified recombinant human calcitonin receptor molecule or a preparation containing a desired portion of the receptor molecule, such as the domain or domains which contribute to ligand binding or to G protein and adenylate cyclase activation. As it may be difficult to generate human monoclonal antibodies to a human receptor or binding domain polypeptide, it may be desirable to transfer antigen binding regions of non-human monoclonal antibodies, e.g. the F(ab')₂ or hypervariable regions or murine monoclonal antibodies, to human constant regions (Fc) or framework regions by recombinant DNA techniques to produce substantially human molecules. Such methods are generally known and are described in, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,816,397 and 4,946,778, and EP publications 173,494 and 239,400, which are incorporated herein by reference. Alternatively, one may isolate DNA sequences which code for a human monoclonal antibody or portions thereof that specifically bind to the human receptor protein by screening a DNA library from human B cells according to the general protocol outlined in WO 90/14430, incorporated herein by reference, and then cloning and amplifying the sequences which encode the antibody (or binding fragment) of the desired specificity.

In other embodiments, the invention provides screening assays conducted in vitro with cells which express the receptor. For example, the DNA which encodes the receptor or selected portions thereof may be transfected into an established cell line, e.g., a mammalian cell line such as BHK or CHO, using procedures described herein. The receptor is then expressed by the cultured cells, and selected agents are screened for the desired effect on the cell, separately or in conjunction with an appropriate ligand such as calcitonin.

In yet another aspect, the screening assays provided by the invention relate to transgenic mammals whose germ cells and somatic cells contain a nucleotide sequence encoding human calcitonin receptor protein or a selected portion of the receptor which, e.g., binds ligand, GTP binding protein, or the like. There are several means by which a sequence encoding, for example, the human calcitonin receptor may be introduced into a non-human mammalian embryo, some of which are described in, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,866, Jaenisch, Science 240-1468-1474 (1988) and Westphal et al., Annu. Rev. Cell Biol. 5:181-196 (1989), which are incorporated herein by reference. The animal's cells then express the receptor and thus may be used as a convenient model for testing or screening selected agonists or antagonists.

In another aspect the invention concerns diagnostic methods and compositions. By means of having nucleotide sequences encoding the human calcitonin receptor, the recombinant receptor protein and monoclonal antibodies thereto, a variety of diagnostic assays are provided. For example, with monoclonal antibodies to human calcitonin receptor, the presence and/or concentration of receptor in selected cells or tissues of an individual or culture of interest may be determined. These assays can be used in the diagnosis and/or treatment of diseases such as, for example, osteoporosis, Paget's disease, and other bone resorption disorders, for example. Numerous types of immunoassays and oligonucleotide probe assays are available and are known to those skilled in the art.

The human calcitonin receptor DNA or RNA may be directly detected in cells with a labeled human calcitonin receptor oligonucleotide probe in a hybridization procedure similar to the Southern or dot blot. Also, the polymerase chain reaction (Saiki et al., Science 239:487, 1988, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,195 and 4,683,202, incorporated herein by reference) may be used to amplify DNA sequences, which are subsequently detected by their characteristic size on agarose gels, Southern blots of these gels using human calcitonin receptor DNA or a oligonucleotide probe, or a dot blot using similar probes. The probes may comprise from about 14 nucleotides to about 25 or more nucleotides, preferably, 40 to 60 nucleotides, and in some instances a substantial portion or even the entire cDNA of human calcitonin receptor may be used. The probes are labeled, directly or indirectly, with a with a detectable signal, such as an enzyme, biotin, a radionuclide, fluorophore, chemiluminescer, paramagnetic particle, etc.

The following examples are offered by way of illustration, not by limitation.

EXAMPLE I Cloning Human Calcitonin Receptor

This Example describes methods for cloning human calcitonin receptor cDNAs.

I. Synthesis of cDNA and Preparation of cDNA Library

T-47D breast carcinoma cells (HBL 133) were obtained from the American Tissue Culture Collection (ATCC) and cultured to confluency in 150 mm petri dishes containing RPMI medium (RPMI 1640 (Sigma, St. Louis, Mo.); 0.29 mg/ml L-glutamine (Hazelton, Lenexa, Kans.); 1 mM sodium pyruvate (Irvine, Santa Ana, Calif.); 0.6 μl/ml insulin (GIBCO-BRL, Gaithersburg, Md.) and 1 μM hydrocortisone (Sigma). The cells were removed by scraping from the petri dishes and total RNA was prepared from the cells using guanidine isothiocyanate (Chirgwin et al. Biochemistry 18:52-94, 1979) and CsCl centrifugation. Poly (A)+ RNA was isolated using oligo d(T) cellulose chromatography (Aviv and Leder, Proc. Natl. Acid. Sci. USA 69:1408-1412, 1972). The RNA was twice selected for poly (A)+ RNA.

First strand cDNA was synthesized from the poly (A)+ RNA described above. A reaction was prepared with the following reagents: 5.0 μl of 2.0 μg/μl poly (A)+ RNA, 7.0 μl of water treated with diethyl pyrocarbonate (DEPC), 2.0 μl 10 mM Tris and 1 mM EDTA (TE) pH 7.4, and 2.0 μl of 1.0 μg/μl oligonucleotide ZC2938 (Sequence ID. No. 15) to act as a primer. The reaction mixture was heated to 65° C. for 3 minutes and cooled on ice. After cooling the reaction mixture was divided into separate tubes designated A and B. The following reagents were added to both the A and B mixtures: 4.0 μl of 5 X AT buffer (GIBCO-BRL, Gaithersburg, Md.), 1.0 μl of 200 mM dithiothreitol, 1.0 μl of a deoxynucleotide triphosphate solution containing 10mM of each dATP, dGTP, dTTP and 5-methyl-dCTP (Pharmacia LKB Biotechnology, Piscataway, N.J.). Reaction mixture A had 1.0 μl of the radiolabeled deoxynucleotide triphosphate α-dATP (10 μCi/μl) added. To the reaction mixture B 1.0 μl of DEPC-treated water was added. Five microliters of 200 u/μl Superscript® reverse transcriptase (GIBCO-BRL, Gaithersburg, Md.) was added to both reaction mixtures A and B, and both were incubated at 45° C. for 30 minutes. The reactions were terminated by adding 80.0 μl of TE pH 7.4.

Two microliters were removed from reaction mixture A to quantitate the yield using a TCA precipitation. An additional 2.0 μl were set aside for alkaline gel analysis. The remaining reaction mixtures A and B were precipitated by adding 2.0 μg oyster glycogen, 30.0 μl 8 M NH₄ Ac₂ and 300.0 μl 100% ethanol. After pelleting the reactions were resuspended in 50.0 μl sterile distilled water.

Second strand synthesis was performed on the RNA-DNA hybrid from the first strand synthesis reaction under conditions that promoted first strand priming of second strand synthesis resulting in DNA hairpin formation. A 100.0 μl reaction mixture was prepared by adding the following reagents to the 50 μg of first strand cDNA: 20.0 μl of 5× polymerase I buffer (100 mM Tris, pH 7.4, 500 mM KCl, 25 mM MgCl₂, 50 mM (NH₄)₂ SO₄), 4.0 μl 100 mM dithiothreitol, 1.0 μl of a solution containing 10 mM of each deoxynucleotide triphosphate, 3.0 μl of 5 mM β-NAD, 0.6 μl of 7 u/μl E. coli DNA ligase (NEB, Beverly, Mass.), 3.1 μl of 8 u/μl E. coli DNA polymerase (Amersham, Arlington Heights, Ill.), 1 μl of 2.0 u/μl RNase H (GIBCO-BRL, Gaithersburg, Md.). Reaction mixture B was supplemented with 1 μl of deoxynucleotide triphosphate α-³² PdATP (10 μCi/μl). The reaction mixture was assembled at room temperature and incubated at 16° C. for 2 hours. Two aliquots of 2.0 μl each were removed for TCA precipitation and alkaline gel analysis. Two micrograms of oyster glycogen were added to the remaining reaction mixture, followed by 5.0 μl of 0.5M EDTA and 200.0 μl TE pH 7.4. The reactions were phenol-chloroform extracted and ammonium acetate precipitated.

Reaction mixtures A and B were each resuspended in 36.0 μl sterile, distilled water. The single-stranded DNA in the hairpin structure was cleaved using a mung bean nuclease reaction mixture that contained 6.0 μl of 10× S1 buffer (300 mM NaAc pH 4.6, 3M NaCl, 10 mM ZnSO₄), 6.0 μl of 10 mM dithiothreitol, 1.0 μl of 50% glycerol, 6.0 μl mung bean nuclease (NEB, Beverly, Mass.). The reactions were incubated for 30 minutes at 30° C. and terminated by dilution to 100.0 μl with TE pH 7.4. Two microliters were removed for alkaline gel analysis. An additional 50.0 μl of 2M Tris pH 7.4 and 50.0 μl TE pH 7.4 were added. The mixtures were phenol-chloroform extracted twice and chloroform extracted once. The reaction mixtures were precipitated using 60.0 μl 8M NH₄ Ac and 260.0 μl isopropanol and the pellets were washed in 80% ethanol.

After the mung bean nuclease digestion the DNA was blunted with T4 DNA polymerase treatment. The cDNA was resuspended in 24.0 μl sterile, distilled water; to which 10× T4 polymerase buffer (330 mM Tris acetate pH 7.9, 670 mM potassium acetate, 100 mM magnesium acetate and 1 mg/ml gelatin), 4.0 μl of each 1 mM deoxynucleotide triphosphate, 4.0 μl of 50 mM dithiothreitol and 4.0 μl of 14 u/μl T4 DNA polymerase was added and incubated at 15° C. for 60 minutes. After terminating the reaction by addition of 200.0 μl of TE, the reaction was phenol/chloroform extracted. The cDNA was precipitated using ammonium acetate and isopropanol.

Plasmid Zem228 is a pUC18-based expression vector containing a unique Bam HI site for insertion of cloned DNA between the mouse metallothionein-1 promoter and SV40 transcription terminator and an expression unit containing the SV40 early promoter, neomycin resistance gene, and SV40 terminator. Plasmid Zem228 was modified to delete the two Eco RI sites by partial digestion with Eco RI, blunting with DNA polymerase I (Klenow fragment) in the presence of dNTPs, and re-ligation. Digestion of the resulting plasmid with Bam HI followed by ligation of the linearized plasmid with Bam HI-Eco RI adapters resulted in-a unique Eco RI cloning site. The resultant plasmid was designated Zem228R. The Sst I site between the SV40 promoter and the mouse metallothionein-1 promoter was destroyed by linearizing Zem228R with Sst I, blunting the adhesive ends with T4 DNA polymerase in the presence of dNTPs and religating the linearized, blunt-ended fragment. A plasmid in which the Sst I site was destroyed was designated Zem228Ra.

In order to facilitate directional insertion of cDNA fragments into Zem288Ra, an adapter was synthesized which contained a 5' Eco RI adhesive end, an internal Sst I site and a 3'Eco RI adhesive end that does not regenerate an Eco RI site upon ligation with an Eco RI adhesive end. Plasmid Zem228Ra was linearized by digestion with Eco RI, and the linearized plasmid was treated with calf alkaline phosphatase to prevent recircularization. The linearized plasmid was ligated with kinased oligonucleotides ZC3168 and ZC3169 (Sequence ID Nos. 13 and 14; respectively). A plasmid containing inserted adapter was designated Zem228C.

To improve the ability to achieve an Eco RI+ Sst I cleavage of the Zem228C vector, an oligonucleotide adapter was synthesized that contained an internal Eco RI site flanked by Eco RI adhesive ends that do not regenerate Eco RI sites upon ligation with Eco RI adhesive ends. Oligonucleotides ZC1773 and ZC1774 (Sequence ID Nos. 5 and 6, respectively) were kinased and annealed to form the adapter. Plasmid Zem228C was linearized by digestion with Eco RI, and the linearized vector and kinased adapter were ligated. A plasmid containing adapter was confirmed and sequenced. Sequence analysis revealed that the plasmid contained a 30 bp DNA insert between the new Eco RI site and the downstream Sst I site. Since an Eco RI+ Sst I cleavage of the vector prior to the insertion of a cDNA sequence removes the additional DNA sequence, the inserted DNA was not removed. The plasmid was designated Zem1698 (also referred to as Zem228CC).

To facilitate the cloning of the cDNA into vector Zem1698, EcoRI adapters (Invitrogen, San Diego, Calif.) were ligated to the oDNA. The cDNA was resuspended in 24.0 μl of sterile, distilled water and 4.0 μl of 10× ligase buffer (500 mM Tris-HCl pH 7.8 and 50 mM MgCl₂), 2.0 μl of 10 mM dATP, 2.0 μl of 200 mM dithiothretiol, 4.0 μl of 1 μg/μl adaptor DNA and 4.0 μl of 1 Weiss U/μl T4 ligase (Boehringer Mannheim, Indianapolis, Ind.) were added to the DNA solution. The ligation reaction was incubated overnight at room temperature. The ligase was heat inactivated by incubation at 65° C. for 10 min. The cDNA was digested with SstI for 8 hrs in a 200 μl reaction with 20 units of SstI and isopropanol precipitated.

To size fractionate the cDNA and remove linkers the cDNA was subjected to chromatography using a Sepharose 2B-CL column with 10 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.4, and 0.1 mM EDTA as the column buffer. The DNA in the void volume was collected and ethanol preciptitated. The final yield of cDNA was 1.9 μg.

The cloning vector Zem1698 was treated with alkaline phosphatase to prevent recircularization of the vector. The cDNA included hemiphosphorylated EcoRI linker adaptors, as described previously, and was phosphorylated using the following reaction to allow for cloning into the Zem1698 vector. Twenty-five microliters of 80 ng/μl was mixed with 1 μl of 200 mM dithiothreitol, 5 μl of 10 mM adenosine triphosphate, 5 μl of 10× T4 Kinase buffer (700 mM Tris-HCl pH 7.6, 1M KCl, 100 mM MgCl₂) and 5 μl of 10 U/μl T4 polynucleotide kinase (GIBCO-BRL, Gaithersburg, Md.). The reaction mixture was incubated for 45 minutes at 37° C., followed by a 10 minute incubation at 65° C. TE was added to a final volume of 150 μl and the reaction mixture was phenol-chloroform extracted once and chloroform extracted once. The cDNA was precipitated with sodium acetate and ethanol. The cDNA was resuspended to a final concentration of 80 ng/μl.

Test ligations demonstrated that 10 ng of cDNA and 40 ng of vector were optimal for expressing the cDNA library. The ligation reaction was scaled up using 8 μl of vector Zem1698 digested with EcoRI and SstI and 2 μl of 80 ng/μl cDNA and was reacted in a 80 μl reaction volume containing: 1 μl 10× ligase (500 mM Tris-HCl pH 7.8, 100 mM MgCl₂, 250 μg/ml BSA), 0.5 μl of 10 mM dithiothreitol and 1 μl of 1 μg/ml mussel glycogen. The reaction was incubated at room temperature for 12 hours, after which time, 40 μl of water, 4 μl of 2M Tris pH 8.0 and 4 μl of 0.5M EDTA were added. The reaction was phenol/chloroform extracted and precipitated with ammonium acetate and ethanol. The pellet was rinsed in 70% ethanol and resuspended in 20 μl water.

One microliter of cDNA was used to transform Electromax® E. coli cells (GIBCO-BRL, Gaithersburg, Md.) using a Gene Pulser® with a Pulse Controller® (Bio-RAD, Richmond, Calif.) set to 25 μF., 2.3 KV, 400 ohms and using a cuvette with a 2mm gap. After electroporation the cells were resuspended in 1 ml of LB broth and plated at 1:10,1:100 and 1:1000 dilutions onto LB plates with 100 μg/ml ampicillin. The plates were incubated overnight at 37° C. and the titer was determined. The remaining cDNA was concentrated to 8 μl and 4 independent electroporation reactions using 2 μl of cDNA per 25 μl of cells were done as described above. The 4 electroporation reactions were pooled into a single mixture in LB broth with a final volume of 8.2 ml and incubated for 30 minutes at 37° C. in a roller drum. The inoculum was plated (200 μl/plate) on 40 15-cm LB and ampicillin plates as described above. Titering of the plates determined each plate had approximately 208,000 colonies. The plates were scraped to remove the cells and the plasmid DNA was isolated.

II. Isolation of Calcitonin Receptor cDNA by PCR Amplification

T-47D human breast carcinoma double-stranded cDNA was used as a template for the amplification of calcitonin receptor sequences using degenerate oligonucleotides (ZC4698 and ZC4699; Sequence ID Nos. 11 and 12, respectively) corresponding to regions of high conservation and low degeneracy based on a multiple alignment of the porcine calcitonin receptor, the rat secretin receptor and the opossum parathyroid hormone receptor. A 50 μl reaction was set up containing 80 ng of template cDNA; 100 pmole each of oligonucleotides ZC4698 (Sequence ID No. 11) and ZC4699 (Sequence ID No. 12); 5 μl of 10× PCR buffer (Promega Corp., Madison, Wis.); 5 μl of each 2.5 mM deoxynucleotide triphosphate; 0.25 μl of Taq polymerase (Promega) and 29.75 μl of water. The polymerase chain reaction was run for 2 cycles at 94° C. for 90 seconds, 40° C. for 90 seconds and 72° C. for 120 seconds; 38 cycles at 94° C. for 45 seconds, 50° C. for 45 seconds, 72° C. for 120 seconds, followed by a 7 minute 25 incubation at 72° C.

The reaction mixture was electrophoresed on a 1.2% agarose gel and a DNA fragment of approximately 600 base pairs was isolated, phenol-chloroform extracted and resuspended in 15 μl water. The 600 bp fragment was amplified using the polymerase chain reaction. The reaction mixture contained 1 μl of 600 bp template, 100 pmole of each oligonucleotide (ZC4698, Sequence ID No. 11 and ZC4699, Sequence ID No. 12), 5 μl of 10× PCR buffer (Promega), 5 μl of each 2.5 mM deoxynucleotide triphosphate and 0.6 μl of Taq polymerase (Promega). The reaction was run as follows: 2 cycles at 90° C. for 90 seconds, 45° C. for 45 seconds, 72° C. for 120 seconds; 30 cycles at 94° C. for 45 seconds, 45° C. for 45 seconds, 72° C. for 120 seconds and terminated with a 7 minute incubation at 72° C. The reaction mixture was cooled at 4° C. and electrophoresed on a 1% low melting agarose gel. A 600 bp fragment was excised and purified.

The 600 bp fragment was cloned into the prime2 vector. The prime2 vector was constructed by inserting the oligonucleotides ZC4418 and ZC4419 (Sequence ID No. 9 and Sequence ID No. 10, respectively) into the PstI restriction site of the phagemid vector pBluescript I (Stratagene, La. Jolla, Calif.). This destroyed the original PstI site and created a new PstI site in the center of the oligonucleotide insert. The prime2 vector was digested to completion with PstI resulting in a 3' overhang. Cohesive ends were generated for the vector and the insert in separate reactions each containing 0.5 μg prime2 vector or 4 μl of the 600 bp insert DNA fragment, 2 μl of 10× bacteriophage T4 DNA polymerase buffer (Sambrook et al., Molecular Cloning A Laboratory Manual, 2d ed., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., 1989, which is incorporated herein by reference), 2 μl of each 1 mM dGTP or dCTP, 2 μl of T4 DNA polymerase.

A ligation reaction of the prime2 vector and 600 bp DNA fragment included 1 μl of prime2 vector, 10 μl of the 600 bp DNA fragment, 3 μl of 10× ligation buffer (Boehringer Mannheim), 3 μl of ligase (NEB, Beverly, Mass.) and 30 μl of water. After overnight incubation at room temperature, the reaction mixture was phenol-chloroform extracted. Once ethanol precipitated, the DNA was resuspended in 25 μl water.

The resulting plasmid, designated 600/prime2, was used to transform E. coli strain DH10B ELECTROMAX cells (GIBCO BRL) by electroporation. One transformant, designated 600/prime2#1, was selected and plasmid DNA was isolated. Sequence analysis showed that the insert encoded a polypeptide related to the porcine calcitonin receptor.

III. Cloning Full-Length Human Calcitonin Receptor From Breast Carcinoma cDNA

A full length human calcitonin receptor cDNA was obtained by screening the JT47d library described in Example I. The JT47d library was plated onto 39 150-mm petri dishes containing LB+70 μg/ml ampicillin at a density of 2×10⁵ colony forming units (cfu). Enough LB broth was added to each plate to make a suspension of the colonies. The cell suspensions were designated 1-39 and placed in LB with 15% glycerol added and frozen at -80° C. Vials containing cell suspensions 1-4 were thawed on ice. One microliter of each suspension was diluted into 10 ml of LB broth and plated at 1, 10 or 100 μl per 150 mm plate containing LB+ ampicillin, prepared by covering each plate with a 137 mm, 1.2 μm BIOTRANS nylon filter (ICN, Irvine, Calif.). The plates were incubated for 12 hours at 25° C., followed by a 5 hour incubation at 37° C., until the colonies were approximately 0.5 mm in size. Replicate copies of the master filter were made by pressing fresh nylon filters onto the master, placing the layers between 3 mm Whatman paper and 2 glass plates and applying pressure to the top plate. The filters were keyed for orientation using an 18 gauge needle. The screening copies were placed on 150 mm LB+170 μg/ml chloramphenical plates and incubated at 37° C. for 3 days. The master filter was placed on a 150 mm LB+70 μg/ml ampicillin plate and incubated for several hours at 37° C. The master filter was removed and stored at 4° C. Approximately 400,000 colonies were screened.

The plasmid 600/prime2#1 was prepared for use as a probe by first digesting with EcoRI and BamHI. The DNA fragment was twice gel purified, using a 2.5% agarose gel and 1% low-melting agarose gel, respectively. A band of approximately 600 bp was isolated. Approximately 30 ng of the 600 bp DNA fragment was radiolabeled using αdCTP and the Stratagene Prime-It Kit (Stratagene) according to the manufacturer's specifications.

The cDNA filters were prehybridized in 80 ml of a solution of 50% formamide, 5 ml of 100× Denhardt's solution (Sambrook, ibid.), 5 ml of 10% SDS, 30 ml of 20× SSC (Sambrook, ibid.) and water to make a final volume of 100 ml. After incubating at 37° C. overnight, new hybridization solution with 8.6 g Dextran Sulfate and 1.8 ml of boiled 10 mg/ml salmon sperm DNA was added. The 600/prime2#1 probe was boiled to denature and 8.6×10⁷ cpm of labeled probe were added to the filters and hybridization solution. The filters were hybridized overnight at 37° C.

One clone hybridized to the probe and was rescued from the master filter. The section of the filter corresponding to the positive signal was removed and placed in 2 ml LB broth and vortexed. The culture was replated at several serial dilutions on new filters and processed as described above. Labeled probe 600/prime2#1 was used to screen the new filters and verified that the clone hybridized to the probe. This clone was designated pHollex and has been deposited with the American Type Cell Culture, Rockville, Md. as an E. coli XLI blue transformant under Accession No. 69067. Sequence analysis, and restriction analysis revealed that the cDNA had an insert of 3.3 kb. The coding sequence was 1422 bp with an 3' untranslated sequence of 1.9 kb. Hollex encoded a protein of 474 amino acids, and had 70.3% amino acid identity to the porcine calcitonin receptor.

IV. Identification of a Truncated Human Calcitonin Receptor From Ovarian cDNA

Human ovary first-strand cDNA was obtained from Clontech (Palo Alto, Calif.) and used as a template for the amplification of calcitonin receptor sequences by polymerase chain reaction, using oligonucleotides (ZC5471 and ZC5468; SEQ ID NO: 16 and 17, respectively) corresponding to regions of human calcitonin receptor (as shown in SEQ ID NO: 1). A 50 μl reaction was set up containing 1 ng template DNA, 5 μl (100 pmoles) of each oligonucleotide ZC5468 and ZC5471 (SEQ ID NO:17 and 16, respectively), 5 μl of each 2.5 mM deoxynucleotide triphosphate, 5 μl of 10× VENT_(R) buffer (100 mM KCl, 200 mM Tris-HCl pH8.8, 100 mM (NH₄)₂ SO₄, 20 mM MgSO₄ and 1% Triton X-100 (polyethylene glycol 4-isooctylphenyl ether) (New England Biolabs)), 0.5 μl of VENT_(R) thermostable DNA polymerase (New England Biolabs) and 29.5 μl of water. The polymerase chain reaction was run for 2 cycles at 94° C. for 90 seconds, 58° C. for 90 seconds and 72° C. for 2 minutes; 38 cycles at 94° C. for 45 seconds, 58° C. for 45 seconds and 72° C. for 2 minutes; followed by 1 cycle at 72° C. for 7 minutes and stored at 4° C. overnight.

The reaction mixture was electrophoresed on a 2% agarose gel and a DNA fragment of approximately 600 base pairs was isolated. The agarose containing the DNA was crushed to form an aqueous solution. The resulting DNA fragment was used as template for a polymerase chain reaction using oligonucleotides (ZC5469 and ZC5474, SEQ ID NO: 18 and 19, respectively) which were designed to hybridize to sequences located internally to oligonucleotides ZC5471 and ZC5468 (SEQ ID NO:16 and 17, respectively). A 50 μl reaction was set up containing 1 μl template DNA, 5 μl (100 pmoles) of each oligonucleotide ZC5469 and ZC5474 (SEQ ID NO: 18 and 19, respectively), 5 μl of each 2.5 mM deoxynucleotide triphosphate, 5 μl of 10× VENT_(R) buffer (New England Biolabs), 0.5 μl of VENT_(R) polymerase (New England Biolabs) and 29.5 μl of water. The polymerase chain reaction was run for 2 cycles at 94° C. for 90 seconds, 58° C. for 90 seconds and 72° C. for 2 minutes; 28 cycles at 94° C. for 45 seconds, 58° C. for 45 seconds and 72° C. for 2 minutes; followed by 1 cycle at 72° C. for 7 minutes and stored at 4° C. overnight.

The reaction mixture was electrophoresed on a 1% agarose gel, and a DNA fragment of approximately 400 base pairs was seen. A 35 μl aliquot of the polymerase chain reaction amplification was electrophoresed on a 1% low melt agarose gel, and the 400 base pair fragment was excised and suspended in an equal volume of 1× TBE. The fragment was purified using phenol-chloroform extraction and resuspended in 10 μl water.

The polymerase chain reaction generated a blunt-ended DNA fragment. Using a blunt-ended SmaI restriction digested pUC19 vector, a ligation reaction was set up containing 3 μl DNA, 2 μl pUC19, 3 μl 10× ligase buffer, 3 μl ligase and 19 μl water. One microliter aliquots were used to electroporate ELECTROMAX DH10B E. coli cells (GIBCO-BRL, Gaithersburg, Md.) using a Gene Pulser with a Pulse Controller (Bio-Rad, Richmond, Calif.) set to 25 μF., 2.3 KC, 400 ohms and using a cuvette with a 2 mm gap. After electroporation the cells were resusupended in 1 ml of LB broth and plated onto LB plates containing 100 μg/ml ampicillin at 10 μl, 100 μl and 890 μl dilutions. The plates were incubated overnight at 37° C. Replicate filters were prepared by covering and carefully removing 2 1.2-1M filters (ICN, Irvine, Calif.) from each petri dish. The filters were keyed for orientation using an 18 gauge needle and baked for i hour at 80° C. After drying, the filters were placed in 50 ml of prehybridization solution that contained 50% formamide, 5 ml of 10% SDS, 5 ml of 100× Denhardt's solution (USA Biochem. Corp., Cleveland, Ohio), 30 ml of 20× SSC (Sambrook, ibid.), 50 ml of 0.2 mg/ml salmon sperm DNA and water to make a final volume of 100 ml. The filters were placed at 37° C. to incubate overnight.

The oligonucleotide ZC5162 (SEQ ID NO: 21), which hybridizes to a portion of the human calcitonin receptor within the 400 base pair fragment, was prepared for use as a probe by radiolabelling the DNA using α-dCTP and the Stratagene Prime-It Kit (Stratagene) according to the manufacturer's specifications.

The prehybridization solution was removed, and 50 ml of new hybridization solution containing 10⁶ cpm/ml of the probe ZC5162 (SEQ ID NO:21) was added to the filters. The filters were hybridized overnight at 37° C. The probe hybridized to four clones, all located on the filter from the 890 μl plating. Three of the four colonies were isolated and inoculated into 5 ml 2× YT broth (16 g. of Bacto Typtone (DIFCO, Detroit, Mich.), 10 g. of Yeast Extract (DIFCO), 10 g. of NaCl and water to 1 liter) that included 100 μg/ml ampicillin. The cultures were grown overnight at 37° C., and plasmid DNA was isolated. The plasmid DNA was digested with EcoRI and HindIII and electrophoresed on an agarose gel to verify inserts of the correct size. All three clones had inserts of 400 base pair size. The clones were streaked out on LB plates containing 100 μg/ml ampicillin to isolate pure colonies, and the plasmid DNA isolation and restriction digests were repeated as described above. The DNA was analyzed on a 2.5% agarose gel, and the 400 base pair insert was verified.

Sequence analysis of the cDNA fragment indicated that the sequence was identical to the clone designated Hollex 1 with the exception of a 35 base pair insert beginning after nucleotide 572 (see SEQ ID NO:1) that resulted in a frame shift. The nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequence of the ovarian calcitonin receptor cDNA clone is shown at SEQ. ID NO.24 and SEQ ID NO.25

V. IDENTIFICATION OF A FULL-LENGTH HUMAN CALCITONIN RECEPTOR PLACENTAL cDNA

Human placental first strand cDNA was obtained from Clontech (No. 7116-1) and used as a template for amplification of calcitonin receptor sequences by polymerase chain reaction using oligonucleotides (ZC5471 and ZC5468; SEQ ID NO: 16 and 17, respectively) corresponding to regions of human calcitonin receptor as described previously. A 50 μl reaction was set up containing 1 μl (1 ng/μl) of template cDNA, 5 μl of (100 pmoles) each oligonucleotide ZC5471 and ZC5468 (SEQ ID NO:16 and 17, respectively), 5 μl of each 2.5 mM dNTP, 5 μl of 10× VENT_(R) buffer (New England Biolabs), 0.5 μl of VENT_(R) polymerase (New England Biolabs) and 29.5 μl of water. The polymerase chain reaction was run for 2 cycles at 94° C. for 90 seconds, 60° C. for 90 seconds and 72° C. for 2 minutes; 38 cycles at 94° C. for 45 seconds, 60° C. for 45 seconds and 72° C. for 2 minutes; followed by 1 cycle at 72° C. for 7 minutes and stored at 4° C. overnight. Ten microliters of the polymerase chain reaction product was analyzed by gel electrophoresis. The reaction product was approximately 600 base pairs.

The reaction mixture was electrophoresed on a 1% agarose gel, and a DNA fragment of approximately 600 base pairs was isolated by excising the agarose containing the DNA fragment from the rest of the gel. The agarose was crushed to form an aqueous solution and used as template for a polymerase chain reaction. The template DNA was amplified in a reaction that contained 1 μl of template cDNA, 5 μl (100 pmoles) of each oligonucleotide ZC5471 and ZC5468 (SEQ ID NO: 16 and 17, respectively), 5 μl of each 2.5 mM dNTP, 5 μl of 10× VENT_(R) buffer (New England Biolabs), 0.5 μl of VENT_(R) polymerase (New England Biolabs) and 29.5 μl of water. The polymerase chain reaction was run for 2 cycles at 94° C. for 90 seconds, 60° C. for 90 seconds and 72° C. for 2 minutes; 38 cycles at 94° C. for 45 seconds, 60° C. for 45 seconds and 72° C. for 2 minutes; followed by 1 cycle at 72° C. for 7 minutes and stored at 4° C. overnight.

The reaction mixture was electrophoresed on a 2% gel, and four DNA bands ranging from 500 to 800 base pairs were seen. Each of the four bands was excised, purified using a 1.5% agarose gel, phenol-chloroform extracted and ethanol precipitated, and each DNA pellet was resuspended in 5 μl water.

Each of the four DNA fragments was phosphorylated to facilitate cloning into the blunt-ended, dephosphorylated vector pNEB193 (a pUC19 derivative obtained from New England Biolabs) in a reaction mixture containing: 4 μl of approximately 10 ng/μl of DNA fragment; 5 μl of 0.01M ³² P gamma-ATP 5 μl of 10× polynucleotide kinase buffer (700 mM Tris-HCl pH7.8, 100 mM MgCl₂ and 50 mM dithiothereitol (New England Biolabs)), 5 μl of polynucleotide kinase (New England Biolabs) and 33.5 μl of water. The reaction mixture was incubated at 37° C. for 1 hour followed by a 45 minute incubation at 65° C. Each of the four phosphorylated DNA fragments was ligated with pNEB193 by adding to the phosphorylation reaction mixture 1 μl of 250 mM dithiothreitol, 1 μl of approximately 30 ng/μl SmaI linearized pNEB193 and 2.5 μl of T4 DNA ligase (New England Biolabs). The reaction mixture was incubated at room temperature for 20 minutes. Following the incubation, 5 μl of 10× ligation buffer (New England Biolabs), 40 μl of water and 5 μl of T4 DNA ligase were added, and the reaction mixture was incubated at room temperature. The ligated DNA was purified by phenol-chloroform extraction and ethanol precipitation, and the DNA was resuspended in 20 μl water. The plasmid DNA was digested with SmaI, phenol extracted and resuspended in 5 μl of water. The linearized DNA was used to electroporate ELECTROMAX DH10B E. coli cells as described previously. The cell mixture was resuspended in 1 ml of LB broth and was used to inoculate LB plates containing 100 μg/ml ampillicin, 60 μl 50 mg/ml ×gal and 20 μl of 100 mM IPTG. The plates were incubated at 37° C. overnight, and seven white colonies from each of the four different DNA fragments were selected for culturing.

Twenty-eight selected colonies were individually inoculated into 5 ml of 2× YT broth and grown overnight at 37° C. Plasmid DNA was isolated and digested with EcoRI and HindIII restriction enzymes. One microliter of each restriction digest was run on a 2.5% agarose gel. The DNA was transferred to nitrocellulose, and the blot was probed essentially as described by Southern (J. Mol. Biol. 98:503, 1975; Sambrook et al., ibid.) with a 3.3 kb Bam HI fragment from pHollex that included the entire coding region of the human calcitonin receptor. The pHollex fragment was radiolabeled using a Multiprime DNA labeling kit (Amersham, Arlington Heights, Ill.), according the manufacturer's specifications.

Six of the 28 clones hybridized to the human calcitonin receptor probe and were selected for sequence analysis. The analysis revealed that one clone, designated pla 14, had a 9 base pair insert but did not appear to be a pure culture. The clone pla 14 was purified by streaking the mixed culture on a LB plate that contained 100 μg/ml ampillicin. Six colonies were isolated and subjected to sequence analysis. These colonies were designated pla 14.1-14.6. Two of these clones, pla 14.4 and pla 14.6, each had a 9 base pair insert. The clone pla 14.6 was used as the source for plasmid DNA and following plasmid DNA isolation was digested with EcoRI and NsiI. The DNA was electrophoresed on a 2.5% agarose gel, and a 150 base pair fragment was isolated and purified using phenol-chloroform extraction and ethanol precipitation. The DNA was resuspended in 31 μl of water.

The nucleotide sequence and deduced amino acid sequence of the placental calcitonin receptor clone is shown at SEQ ID NO.26 and SEQ ID NO.27

EXAMPLE II Expression of Human Calcitonin Receptor in Mammalian Cells

This Example describes the expression of functional human calcitonin receptor by cells in a manner that was capable of binding calcitonin, activating adenylate cyclase activity, and increasing intracellular calcium.

A. TRANSFECTION INTO LUCIFERASE CELL LINE

The human calcitonin receptor cDNA pHollex was expressed in a BHK570 cell line stably transfected with pKZ10, an expression unit comprising a promoter containing two cyclic AMP response elements, the luciferase cDNA and the hGH terminator. This cell line permits the measurement of luciferase activity, adenylate cyclase activity and intracellular calcium concentrations in response to calcitonin binding to its receptor.

The enkephalin cyclic AMP response element (CRE) in plasmid ZK6 was obtained from Zem233. Zem233 was derived from plasmids Zem67 and Zem106. Plasmid Zem106 was constructed from the precursor Zem93. To construct Zem93, a Kpn I-Bam HI fragment comprising the MT-1 promoter was isolated from MThGH111 (Palmiter et al., Science 222:809-814, 1983) and inserted into pUC18. Plasmid Zem93 was then digested with Sst I and re-ligated to generate plasmid Zem106, in which approximately 600 bp of sequence 5' to the MT-1 promoter were eliminated.

An enkephalin CRE was inserted into Zem106 by first digesting Zem106 with EcoRI and SstI to isolate the vector-containing fragment. Oligonucleotides ZC982 and ZC983 (Sequence ID Nos. 3 and 4, respectively) were designed to encode when annealed a proenkephalin CRE from nucleotides -71 to -133 (Comb et al., Nature 323: 353-356, 1986) flanked by a 5' EcoRI site and a 3' SstI site. Oligonucleotides ZC982 and ZC983 (Sequence ID Nos. 3 and 4, respectively) were kinased, annealed and ligated with the linearized Zem106 to obtain plasmid Zem224.

Plasmid Zem67 was obtained by first digesting pIC19R (Marsh et al., Gene 32:481-486, 1984) with SmaI and HindIII. The ori region of SV40 from map position 270 (Pvu II) to position 5171 (Mind III) was then ligated to the linearized pICI9R to produce plasmid Zem67. The HindIII-BamHI neomycin resistance gene-SV40 terminator fragment from plasmid pSV2-neo (available from ATCC as Accession no. 37149) was inserted into Hind III-Bgl II digested Zem67 to obtain Zem220.

The SV40 promoter-neomycin resistance gene-SV40 terminator expression unit from plasmid Zem220 was isolated as an Eco RI fragment. Plasmid Zem224 was digested with Eco RI and treated with calf alkaline phosphatase to prevent recircularization. The neomycin expression unit and the linearized Zem224 were ligated. A plasmid containing the SV40 promoter proximal to the CRE was designated Zem233.

Plasmid Zem233 was modified to insert an additional CRE sequence, a TATA box, and a portion of the lacZ coding and poly(A) sequences immediately 3' to the proenkephalin CRE sequence such that the resulting expression unit was in the opposite orientation relative to the neomycin resistance expression unit present in Zem233. Plasmid Zem233 was linearized by digestion with SstI and BamHI. Oligonucleotides ZC3509 and ZC3510 (Sequence ID Nos. 7 and 8, respectively) were designed such that when annealed, the resulting duplex encodes a glycoprotein CRE (Delegeane et al., Mol. Cell. Biol, 7: 3994-4002, 1987) with a 5' SstI adhesive end and a 3' EcoRI adhesive end. The oligonucleotides were annealed according to standard procedures. The thymidine kinase TATA box was obtained as an Eco RI-Pst I fragment spanning nucleotides -79 to +18 of the thymidine kinase gene (McKnight Cell 31: 355-366, 1982). The 3' sequence of the lacZ gene and its associated poly(A) sequence were obtained as a Pst I-Bam HI fragment from plasmid pLacF (obtained from Jaques Peschon, Immunex Corp., Seattle, Wash.), which contains the lacZ coding region and mouse protamine terminator sequence cloned into the pUC18 vector. The Sst I-Bam HI linearized Zem233, the Sst I-Eco RI ZC3509/ZC3510 adapter, the Eco RI-Pst I TATA box fragment and the Pst I-Bam HI lacZ sequence were ligated. A plasmid containing the expression unit in the correct orientation relative to the neomycin resistance gene expression unit of Zem233 was designated KZ5.

The luciferase gene and human growth hormone (hGH) terminator sequences were used to replace the lacZ coding and poly(A) sequences present in KZ5. The luciferase gene was initially obtained from plasmid a-1681luc (Delegeane et al., Mol. Cell. Biol. 7: 3994-4002, 1987 and deWet et al., Mol. Cell. Biol. 7: 25-737, 1987) as a 1.7 kb Xho I-Xba I fragment. The hGH terminator was obtained as an Xba I-Sal I fragment from Zem219b (deposited as an E. coli transformant with the ATCC under Accession no. 6879). The luciferase gene and hGH terminator sequences were subcloned into Xho I-Sal I linearized pIC19H (Marsh et al., ibid.) for convenience. The resulting plasmid, KZ8, was digested with Xho I and Sal I to isolate the luciferase-hGH terminator sequences. Plasmid KZ5 was digested with Sal I to isolate the vector-containing fragment and was treated with calf alkaline phosphatase to prevent recircularization. The Xho I-Sal I luciferase-hGH terminator fragment was ligated with the Sal I-digested KZ5. A plasmid containing the luciferase-hGH terminator in the proper orientation relative to the promoter was designated KZ6.

Plasmid KZ6 was digested with HindIII to remove a DNA fragment containing the SV40 promoter, CRE unit, Luciferase gene, human growth hormone gene and poly(A) sequences. Zem 219b (ATCC accession number 68979) was digested with HindIII to isolate the DHFR gene and pUC18 sequences. The KZ6 and Zem219b DNA fragments were gel purified isolated as a 3.0 kb fragment and a 5.0 kb fragment, respectively, and ligated. The resulting plasmid containing a CRE-responsive luciferase gene and a DHFR selectable marker was designated plasmid KZ10.

Plasmid KZ10 was transfected into BHK570 cells (available from ATCC as Accession no. CRL 10314) using the calcium phosphate precipitation method essentially as described by Graham and Van de Eb (Virol. 52: 456, 1973, which is incorporated by reference herein). The transfected cells were grown in growth medium (Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) containing 10% fetal calf serum and 2.0 mm L-glutamine). After a few days in nonselective growth medium, the growth medium was replaced with methotrexate (MTX) selection medium (growth medium containing 250 nM MTX). The cells were then allowed to grow to confluency after which they were trypsinized and plated at limiting dilution into the wells of 96-well plates. The cells were grown for one to two weeks in methotrexate selection medium. Clones from wells containing single colonies were assayed for the ability to respond to forskolin in the luciferass assay described below. Forskolin elevates the cellular cAMP level and thus the associated cAMP-dependent biological response pathways in a receptor-independent manner. A clone capable of responding to forskolin was designated BHK/KZ10-20-48.

B- EXPRESSION OF THE OVARIAN CALCITONIN RECEPTOR cDNA

Oligonucleotide primers ZC5468 and ZC5471 (SEQ ID NO: 17 and 16, respectively) were used for the amplification of the ovarian calcitonin receptor cDNA and contained a 3' EcoRI restriction site and a 5' NsiI restriction site. These restriction sites were used to remove the ovarian cDNA from the polymerase chain reaction generated clones and insert the DNA fragment into the corresponding region of pHollex, creating a new plasmid containing the calcitonin receptor with the ovarian cDNA insertion. Two of the ovarian clones, designated 6 and 7, were pooled and digested with EcoRI and NsiI. The cDNA fragment was excised, then analyzed and isolated using a 2.5% agarose gel, and found to be 180 base pairs. To facilitate cloning of the ovarian cDNA 180 base pair fragment, a BglII/BclI portion (1.5 kb) of the clone pHollex was ligated into the cloning vector pNEB193 (New England Biolabs) by digesting pNEB193 with EcoRI and SmaI and making the plasmid blunt-ended using the Klenow fragment of DNA polymerass. The pNEB193 DNA was digested with BamHI and ligated with a BglII/BclI (BamHI compatible) fragment of pHollex. The resulting plasmid, pHollex/NEB193, has a 3' EcoRI restriction site and a 5' NsiI restriction site surrounding the calcitonin receptor cDNA. Twenty-five micrograms of the plasmid was digested with EcoRI and NsiI, and a 4.5 kb fragment was isolated by gel purification using a 0.8% agarose gel. The resulting fragment was resuspended in 60 μl of water. The ovarian cDNA fragment and pHollex linearized plasmid were ligated in a reaction mixture containing 1 μl of approximately 50 ng/μl pHollex; 1 μl of approximately 10 ng/μl ovarian calcitonin receptor cDNA; 3 μl 10× ligation buffer; 3 μl T4 ligase (New England Biolabs) and 22 μl water. The reaction mixture was incubated at room temperature for approximately 3 hours, phenol-chloroform extracted and ethanol precipitated. The resulting DNA pellet was resuspended in 5 μl water, and 1 μl ligated DNA was used to electroporate ELECTROMAX DH10B E. coli cells as described above. The cells were plated on LB plates containing 100 mg/ml ampicillin, and 18 colonies were isolated. Cultures were grown from these colonies, and plasmid DNA was isolated. The clones were designated Ovex 1-18, and each clone was shown to contain a 1.5 kb insert using gel analysis. Sequence analyses of Ovex clones 1 and 2 revealed a 35 base pair insert in the calcitonin cDNA identical to the original fragment generated by the polymerase chain reaction amplification.

Ovex 1 and 2 were subcloned into mammalian expression vector Zem228R. Vector Zem228R is a precursor of Zem1698 described in Example I.I. Plasmid Zem228R was digested with EcoRI to linearize the vector and made blunt-ended in a reaction that contained 10× nick translation buffer (0.5M Tris-HCl pH7.2, 0.1M MgSO4, 1 mM dithiothreitol, 500 μg/ml bovine serum albumin), 2.5 mM of each dNTP, 5 μl of the Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase (GIBCO-BRL), 10 μl of approximately 20 ng/μl plasmid Zem228R and 50 μl water. The reaction mixture was incubated at room temperature for one hour, extracted with phenol-chloroform and ethanol precipated. The DNA pellets were resuspended in 85 μl of water, treated with calf alkaline phosphatase and gel purified. The Ovex clones were digested with AscI and HindIII to remove the pNEB193 fragment from the insert. The resulting fragment was identified as 1.5 kb and gel purified. The 1.5 kb DNA fragment was made blunt-ended in a reaction containing: 20 μl AscI/HindIII digested ovex DNA; 10 μl 10× nick translation buffer; 5 μl of the Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase (GIBCO-BRL); 5 μl of 2.5 mM dNTPs and 60 μl water. The reaction mixture was incubated at room temperature for 30 minutes and phenol-chloroform extracted. The DNA was ethanol precipitated and resuspended in 10 μl water.

The blunt-ended, linearized vector Zem228R and blunt-ended Ovex cDNA fragment were ligated in a reaction containing: 1 μl of approximately 20 ng/μl calf alkaline phosphatase-treated Zem228R; 3 μl of 10× ligation buffer (New England Biolabs); 3 μl ligase (New England Biolabs); 5 μl AscI/HindIII blunt-ended Ovex fragment and 22 μl water. The ligation mixtures were phenol-chloroform extracted, ethanol precipitated and resuspended in 5 gml water. One microliter of ligation mixture was used to electroporate ELECTROMAX DH10B E. coli cells as described previously. The ligation-cell mixture was resuspended in 1 ml of LB broth, and 100 μl of the mixture was used to inoculate LB plates containing 100 μg/ml ampicillin.

Eighteen Ovex/Zem228R colonies were isolated and inoculated into 4 ml of 2× YT broth containing 50 μg/ml of kanamycin. The cultures were grown overnight at 37° C. Eight of the eighteen cultures grew, and these were used as a source for plasmid DNA. The plasmid DNA was digested with BamHI and gel analyzed. Each of the eight clones had an insert of the correct size (1.5 kb).

Orientation of the Ovex/Zem228R insert was determined by digesting the plasmid DNA with SalI and using gel analysis. Clones designated pOvex/Zem228R4 and pOvex/Zem228R5 were found to have the correct restriction sites.

The ovarian subtype human calcitonin receptor cDNA Ovex/Zem228R was expressed in cell line BHK/KZ10-20-48 as described in Example IIA.

C. EXPRESSION OF THE PLACENTAL CALCITONIN RECEPTOR cDNA

The vector pHollex/NEB193 was digested with NsiI and EcoRI to remove the region corresponding to the ovarian 35 base pair insert. A 4.5 kb DNA fragment was isolated and purified. A ligation reaction was prepared with a mixture containing 1 μl of 50 ng/μl EcoRI/NsiI pHollex/NEB193, 30 ng (1 μl) of the 150 base pair pla 14.6 EcoRI/NsiI DNA fragment, 3 μl of 10× ligase buffer (500 mM Tris-HCl pH 7.8, 100 mM MgCl₂, 100 mM dithiotheritol, 10 mM ATP and 250 μg/ml BSA (New England Biolabs)); 3 μl of ligase (New England Biolabs) and 22 μl of water. The mixture was incubated at room temperature for 3 hours followed by a phenol-chloroform extraction and ethanol precipitation. The DNA was resuspended in 5 μl of water and used to electroporate ELECTROMAX DH10B E. coli cells as described previously. Four colonies, designated plaex 1-4, were isolated and cultured, and plasmid DNA was prepared.

Confirmation of insert size was made by transferring the DNA to nitrocellulose and probing as described above. The probe was made from an oligonucleotide designed to span the 9 base pair placental clone insert (ZC5993; SEQ ID NO:20). The probe was radiolabeled by incubation at 37° C. for 30 minutes in a mixture containing 5 μl of 3.9 pmole/μl of ZC5993 (SEQ ID NO:20), 10 μl of 10× polynucleotide kinase buffer (New England Biolabs), 5 μl of polynucleotide kinase (New England Biolabs), 1 μl of 150 μCi/μl ³² P gamma-ATP (Amersham) and 79 μl of water. The unincorporated radiolabel was removed by precipitation with spermine/salmon sperm DNA, according to the specification provided with the Multiprime DNA Labeling kit (Amersham). The nitrocellulose blots were incubated at high stringency hybridization conditions at 65° C. in 0.1× SSC/0.5% SDS (Sambrook et al., ibid.) to eliminate probe from hybridizing to clones containing the plasmid pHollex but without the placental insert. All four of the plaex clones were found to contain inserts.

One clone, designated plaex3, was subcloned into mammalian expression vector Zem228R. Zem228R was digested with EcoRI to linearize the vector and made blunt-ended as described previously. The plaex3 plasmid DNA was digested with AscI and HindIII to remove the portion of the vector corresponding to pNEB193 from the plasmid. The resulting DNA fragment was identified as 1.5 kb and gel purified. The DNA fragment was made blunt-ended as described previously.

The blunt-ended, linearized vector Zem228R and blunt-ended plaex DNA fragment were ligated in a reaction containing 1 μl of approximately 20 ng/μl phosphorylated Zem228R, 3 μl of 10× ligation buffer (New England Biolabs), 3 μl ligase (New England Biolabs), 5 μl of 50 ng/μl AscI/HindIII blunt-ended plaex DNA fragment and 22 μl water. The ligation and subsequent electroporation of ELECTROMAX DH10B E. coli cells were done as described previously. The cell mixture was resuspended in 1 ml of LB broth, and 100 μl and 900 μl aliquots of the suspension were used to inoculate LB plates containing 50 μg/ml kanamycin.

Filters were made of the plaex3 colonies using 137 mm 1.2 μM nylon membranes (ICN). The filters were dried and placed in the hybridization solution containing 62.5 ml of 20× SSPE (175.3 g NaCl, 27.6 g NaH2PO4. H2O, 7.4 g EDTA, NaOH added to pH7.4 and water to 1 liter), 25 ml of 50× Denhardt's solution; 12.5 ml of 10% SDS (Sambrook et al., ibid.) and 144 ml of water with 0.2 mg/ml of boiled salmon sperm DNA added. The mixtures were incubated for several hours at 65° C. A probe was made from pHollex/NEB193 as a template and oligonucleotides ZC5470 and ZC5465 (SEQ ID NO:22 and 23, respectively) by amplifying the DNA sequences using a polymerase chain reaction. A 50 μl reaction was set up containing 1 ng template DNA, 5 μl (100 pmoles) of each of oligonucleotides ZC5470 and ZC5465 (SEQ ID NO:22 and 23, respectively), 5 μl of each 2.5 mM deoxynucleotide triphosphate, 5 μl of 10× VENT_(R) buffer (New England Biolabs), 0.5 μl of VENT_(R) polymerase (New England Biolabs) and 29.5 μl of water. The polymerass chain reaction was run for 2 cycles at 94° C. for 90 seconds, 58° C. for 90 seconds and 72° C. for 2 minutes; 38 cycles at 94° C. for 45 seconds, 58° C. for 45 seconds and 72° C. for 2 minutes; followed by 1 cycle at 72° C. for 7 minutes and stored at 4° C. overnight.

A second polymerass chain reaction was run using the product of the above reaction as the template. This reaction mixture contained 1 ng template DNA, 10 μl (200 pmoles) of each of oligonucleotides ZC5470 and ZC5465 (SEQ ID NO:22 and 23, respectively), 10 μl of each 2.5 mM deoxynucleotide triphosphate, 4 μl of 10× VENT_(R) (EXO-) buffer (New England Biolabs), 29.5 μl of water and a wax bead (AMPLIWAX PCR GEM 100; Perkin Elmer, Norwalk, Conn.). The reaction mixture was heated to 80° C. and the reaction carried out according to the manufacturer's specification. After incubation, 6 μl of 10× VENT_(R) buffer (New England Biolabs), 4 μl of VENT_(R) (EXO-) (New England Biolabs) and 50 μl of water were added to the mixture. Ten separate reaction mixtures were prepared. The polymerass chain reaction was run for 10 cycles of 94° C. for 45 seconds, 58° C. for 45 seconds, and 72° C. for 2 minutes followed by 1 cycle at 72° C. for 7 minutes. The reaction mixtures were pooled and purified by centrifugation in a Centricon 100 (Amicon, Danvers, Mass.) according to the manufacturer's specifications. The retentate was purified by ammonium acetate-2-propanol precipitation in a reaction containing 27 μl of 7.5M ammonium acetate, 55 μl of DNA supernatant, 18 μl of water and 100 μl of 2-propanol. The reaction mixture was centrifuged for 10 minutes at 14,000 rpm in an Eppendorf microcentrifuge. The pellet was resuspended in 187 μl of water to a concentration of approximately 50 ng/μl.

The filters were added to 100 ml of the hybridization solution containing 10⁶ cpm/ml of probe and incubated at 65° C. overnight. After incubation, the filters were washed 5 times in 0.1× SSC and 0.5% SDS at 65° C. for 30 minutes per wash. Six positive colonies were identified, isolated and used to inoculate 5 ml of 2× YT broth with 100 μg/ml of ampicillin added. Plasmid DNA was isolated from the cells and analyzed by restriction digest using BamHI. All six clones were found to have the expected insert size of 1.5 kb and the clones were designated plaex 1, 2, 4. Orientation of the insert was determined by digesting the plasmid DNA with NsiI and all of the clones were found to have the correct orientation for transcription.

The placental subtype human calcitonin receptor cDNA plaex 1 was stably expressed in cell line BHK/KZ10-20-48 as described in Example IIA.

D. LUCIFERASE AND ADENYLATE CYCLASE ACTIVITY IN WHOLE CELLS

pHollex or Zem1698 were used to transfect cell line BHK/KZ10-20-48 (Zem1698 transfectants were used as negative controls) as described above using calcium phosphate-mediated transfection. Transfectants were selected in a growth medium containing both 500 μg/ml G418-neomycin and 250 nM methotrexate as described previously.

Transfectants were assayed in triplicate for the induction of the CRE-luciferase response to selected agonists. Two clones, Hollex1 and Hollex2, and the vector Zem1698 (negative control) were tested. Microlite flat bottom tissue culture plates (Baxter Scientific Products, Chicago, Ill.) were set up such that each well contained 2×10⁴ cells in 100 μl of selection media and the cells were grown overnight. The agonists were prepared in DMEM medium with 5% serum at the 2× final assay concentration containing either: 10⁻¹³ to 10⁻⁶ M human calcitonin (hCT), salmon calcitonin (sCT), human calcitonin gene related peptide (hCGRP) or 20 μM forskolin (CalBiochem, San Diego, Calif.).

Induction was initiated by removing old medium from the wells and adding 100 μl of fresh growth medium and 100 μl of each 2× solution in triplicate sample wells. Uninduced levels were determined in triplicate wells to which 100 μl of DMEM containing 10% fetal calf serum was added. The plates were incubated for four hours at 37° C., 5% CO₂ to allow induction of luciferass.

Following induction, the medium was removed, and the wells were washed once with 200 μl/well PBS. After the wash, 20 μl of a 1:5 dilution (in sterile water) of the stock Cell Culture Lysis Reagent (Luciferase Assay System, Promega Corp., Madison, Wis.) was added to each well, and the plates were incubated for 15 minutes at room temperature. The plates were transferred to a Labsystems Luminoskan microtiter luminometer (Labsystems Inc., Morton Grove, Ill.) which added 40 μl of Luciferass Assay Substrate (Luciferass Assay System, Promega), mixed the reaction for three seconds and integrated the luciferass signal for two seconds per well. The fold induction of luciferass for each agonist was calculated as follows:

Fold induction=Induced signal--Uninduced signal Uninduced Signal

Hollex1 and Hollex2 showed a 5-10 fold induction of luciferass (FIG. 3 and FIG. 4) for human and salmon calcitonin. The control vector, Zem1698, showed no significant response to any of the agonists mentioned.

The cAMP response of the transfectant clones Hollex1 and Hollex2 to calcitonin and forskolin was also assayed by radioimmunoassay using the cAMP ¹²⁵ I! scintillation proximity assay system (Amersham) using the manufacturer's directions. Briefly, either 1×10⁵ cells per well or 3×10⁵ cells per well were plated into the wells of a 24-well culture dish and grown for 2 days (1×10⁵ cells per well) or overnight (3×10⁵ cells per well) in selection medium. Calcitonin and forskolin were prepared in DMEM, 10% fetal calf serum, 10 μM IBMX at 0.0001-1000 nM and 25 μM, respectively.

The growth medium was replaced with 200 μl/well of agonist (either calcitonin or forskolin). The cells were incubated with the agonists for 10 minutes at 37° C. in 5% CO₂. Following incubation, 800 μl of boiling water was added to each well. After 15 minutes the supernatants were collected and diluted 1:5 or 1:40 in acetate buffer (cAMP ¹²⁵ I! Scintillation Proximity Assay System (Amersham)). Samples were acetylated using triethylamine and acetic anhydride according to the protocol provided by the manufacturer.

A 100 μl aliquot of each acetylated sample was combined with 75 μl of ¹²⁵ I-cAMP, 75 μl anti-succinyl cAMP antisera and 75 μl of donkey anti-rabbit IgG coupled SPA beads (all assay solutions provided in the cAMP ¹²⁵ I! Scintillation Proximity Assay System (Amersham)) in a well of an Dynatech MICROLITE 2 plate. The trays were sealed and incubated overnight with continuous shaking on a rotary platform shaker at 200 rpm. The samples were counted in a Packard Top Count Microplate Scintillation Counter (Packard Instrument Co., Meriden, Conn.). A standard curve of 2-128 fmol acetylated cAMP was also run. Total ¹²⁵ I-cAMP bound and nonspecific binding were also determined.

Hollex1 showed 12-fold induction of cAMP, Hollex2 showed a 5-fold induction of cAMP levels at saturating Salmon calcitonin concentrations (10-100 nM), and an ED50 of 0.07 nM for Hollex1 and 0.04 nM for Hollex2 using Salmon calcitonin.

E. BINDING AND COMPETITION ASSAYS WITH HOLLEX1 AND HOLLEX2

Clones Hollex1 and Hollex2 were tested for receptor-mediated ability to bind calcitonin using a competition assay. T47D cells were used as a positive control and BHK cells transfected with Zem1698 were used as a negative control.

The cells were plated at a density of 1×10⁵ cells/well in a 24-well cell culture dish and allowed to grow for 48 hours at 37° C. and 5% CO₂ in growth medium (described in previous examples). The cells were rinsed in binding medium (500 ml RPMI 1640 (Sigma, St. Louis, Mo.), 1 mg/ml bacitracin (Sigma), and 1 mg/ml BSA (Boehringer Mannheim)) to remove the serum. Three hundred microliters of binding medium containing radiolabeled ¹²⁵ I agonist and a serial dilution of unlabeled competitor (Table 1) were added to appropriate wells. The cells were incubated for 1.5 hours at room temperature, and then rinsed 3 times with PBS to remove unincorporated radioactivity. Five hundred microliters of 0.25N NaOH was added to each well to solubilize the cells. The samples were collected from each well and CPMs were counted on a gamma counter.

Data were entered and calculated using Kinetic, EBDA. Ligand, Lowery program from BIOSOFT (Cambridge, U.K.), according to manufacturer's specification. The results of additional experiments are summarized in Table 2.

                  TABLE 1                                                          ______________________________________                                         Ability of cloned human calcitonin receptor to bind                            human (A) and salmon (B) calcitonin in competition assays.                     ______________________________________                                         A. Human calcitonin concentrations                                             .sup.125 I Calcitonin.sup.a                                                                 Unlabeled calcitonin                                                                        Results (cpms).sup.b                                 ______________________________________                                         8.7 × 10.sup.-3 nM                                                                    50       nM      319                                              8.7 × 10.sup.-3 nM                                                                    30       nM      533                                              8.7 × 10.sup.-3 nM                                                                    10       nM      1186                                             8.7 × 10.sup.-3 nM                                                                    3        nM      2781                                             8.7 × 10.sup.-3 nM                                                                    1        nM      4657                                             8.7 × 10.sup.-3 nM                                                                    0.3      nM      5488                                             8.7 × 10.sup.-3 nM                                                                    0.1      nM      6255                                             8.7 × 10.sup.-3 nM                                                                    0.03     nM      6518                                             8.7 × 10.sup.-3 nM                                                                    0.01     nM      6610                                             8.7 × 10.sup.-3 nM                                                                    0.003    nM      6554                                             8.7 × 10.sup.-3 nM                                                                    0                6886                                             ______________________________________                                         B. Salmon calcitonin concentrations                                            .sup.125 I Calcitonin.sup.c                                                                 Unlabeled calcitonin                                                                        Results.sup.b                                        ______________________________________                                         1.7 × 10.sup.-2 nM                                                                    50       nM      147                                              1.7 × 10.sup.-2 nM                                                                    30       nM      458                                              1.7 × 10.sup.-2 nM                                                                    10       nM      558                                              1.7 × 10.sup.-2 nM                                                                    3        nM      1639                                             1.7 × 10.sup.-2 nM                                                                    1        nM      4132                                             1.7 × 10.sup.-2 nM                                                                    0.3      nM      8421                                             1.7 × 10.sup.-2 nM                                                                    0.1      nM      9711                                             1.7 × 10.sup.-2 nM                                                                    0.03     nM      10262                                            1.7 × 10.sup.-2 nM                                                                    0.01     nM      10278                                            1.7 × 10.sup.-2 nM                                                                    0.003    nM      10430                                            1.7 × 10.sup.-2 nM                                                                    0                10389                                            ______________________________________                                          .sup.a Specific activity of 1.9 × 10.sup.3 Ci/mM.                        .sup.b A baseline control of 27 cpm was established using 200 nM unlabele      salmon calcitonin to ensure that all the radiolabeled calcitonin was           competed out.                                                                  .sup.c Specific activity of 945 Ci/mM.                                   

                  TABLE 2                                                          ______________________________________                                         Summary of binding studies                                                            T47D                                                                           (pos. control)                                                                           Hollex1     Hollex2                                           ______________________________________                                         No. receptors/                                                                          30-40,000   800,000     100,000                                       cell                                                                           Kd (nM, avg.)                                                                           hCT = 2.1 ± 0.3                                                                         hCT = 4 ± 2.5                                                                           hCT = 1.7 ± 0.1                                     sCT = 0.6 ± 0.5                                                                         SCT = 0.5 ± 0.2                                                                         sCT = 0.3 ± 0.01                           ______________________________________                                    

The above results clearly indicate that the human calcitonin receptor clones bind both human and salmon calcitonin, with a greater affinity for human calcitonin compared to the salmon peptide.

F. BINDING AND COMPETITION ASSAYS WITH PLAEX

A pool of transfectants expressing the plaex 1 was tested for receptor-mediated binding to calcitonin using a competition assay. Hollex1 was used as a positive control and BHK cells transfected with Zem228R were used as a negative control.

The cells were plated at a density of 1×10⁵ cells/well in a 24-well cell culture dish and allowed to grow for 48 hours at 37° C. and 5% CO₂ in growth medium (described in previous examples). The cells were rinsed in binding medium as described in Example IIE. Three hundred microliters of hot binding medium containing 10 nM hCT and 5 μCi/ml ¹²⁵ I hCT. Cold competition was achieved by adding unlabelled hCT to a final concentration of 1 μM were added to appropriate wells. The cells were incubated 1.5 hours at room temperature. Unincorporated radioactivity was removed by three washes with PBS. Five hundred microliters of 1N NaOH was added to each well to solublize the cells. Each sample was counted on a gamma counter. The data are presented in Table 3.

                  TABLE 3                                                          ______________________________________                                         cell line      hot (cpm)                                                                               hot/cold (cpm)                                         ______________________________________                                         plaex1         80,000   38,000                                                 Hollex1        96,000   23,000                                                 BHK/Zem228R    147      105                                                    ______________________________________                                    

The above results clearly indicate that the BHK transfectants that express the human placental subtype calcitonin receptor binds human calcitonin.

G. INOSITOL TRIPHOSPHATE ASSAY

BHK 570 cells expressing the calcitonin receptor from pHollex or mock-transfected BHK 570 cells were plated into 24-well tissue culture dishes at about 200,000 cells per well. After 24 hours, the cells in each well were labeled by incubation in 0.5 ml of Dulbecco's Modified Eagles Medium (DMEM, JRH Biosciences, Lenexa, Kans.) containing 10% fetal calf serum and 4.0 μCi/ml of myo-(2-³ H) inositol (specific activity =20 Ci/mmol; Amersham). At the end of a 24 hour incubation, the cells were washed with 1 ml prewarmed DMEM that had been buffered with 20 mM Hepes, pH 7.0 (Sigma Chemical Co.) containing 10 mM LiCl. The wash medium was removed by aspiration and replaced with 900 μl of fresh buffered medium. The cells were incubated for five to fifteen minutes at 37° C. After incubation, appropriate concentration of each agonist or antagonist was added to triplicate wells, and the cells were incubated for 30 minutes at 37° C.

The reaction was terminated by placing the cells on ice. Following aspiration of the media, the cells were then lysed by the addition of 1 ml of cold DMEM and 1 ml of ice-cold 10% perchloric acid. After ten minutes the cell lysates were transferred to tubes containing 500 μl of 10 mM EDTA, pH 7.0. The samples were neutralized by the addition of 900 μl of 1.5M KOH in 60 mM Hepes buffer and dropwise addition of the KOH-Hepes solution until a pH between 7 and 7.5 was reached. The neutralized samples were frozen at -20° C. overnight. The frozen samples were thawed, and the precipitate was allowed to settle out of the samples. The supernatants were applied to AMPREP minicolumns that had been sequentially washed with 5 ml each of methanol and 1M KHCO₃ followed by a wash with 15 ml of water. After the samples were applied, the flow-through was collected. The column was washed with 1 ml of water four times and 1 ml samples were collected after each wash. The inositol phosphates were eluted from the column by four successive 1 ml applications of 0.25M KHCO₃ with 1 ml samples collected after each application. Ten milliliters of OPTIFLUOR (Packard Instrument Co., Menden, Conn.) were added to each sample, and the samples were counted. Stimulation of the inositol phosphate pathway was indicated by an increase in labeled inositol phosphate levels. The ED50 for human calcitonin in Hollex1 was 6 nM and for salmon calcitonin was 9.5 nM. Hollex2 showed no response.

H. CALCIUM ANALYSIS

Intracellular calcium responses of Hollex1 to calcitonin were assayed essentially as described by Grynkiewicz et al. (J. Biol. Chem, 260: 3440-3450, 1985, incorporated herein by reference). Transfectants were seeded into 2 well coverglass chambers (NUNC) at 5×10⁴ cells per chamber. The cells were grown for between one and three days under normal culture conditions in G 418 and methotrexate selection medium. The medium was removed by aspiration, and the chambers were rinsed twice with 1 ml Imaging Buffer (140 mM NaCl, 10 mM HEPES, 5.6 mM glucose, 5 mM KCl, 1 mM CaCl₂).

After the final rinse 0.5 ml of Fura-2 AM Solution (50 mg fura-2 AM (Molecular Probes, Inc., Eugene, Oreg.), 50 ml DMSO, 5 ml Imaging Buffer), the cells were incubated for 30 minutes in the dark at room temperature. After incubation, the Fura-2 AM Solution was removed and the cells rinsed three times with 1 ml Imaging Buffer. After the final rinse, 0.5 ml of buffer was left in each chamber. The cells were held in the dark at room temperature from 30 to 120 minutes. Imaging was performed on a Nikon Diaphot inverted fluorescence microscope equipped with a mercury arc lamp and 10× and 40× Nikon Fluor dry objective lenses. Experiments were controlled and analyzed using a Sun Microsystems (Mountain View, Calif.) SPARC II workstation and Inovision (Research Triangle Park, N.C.) RATIOTOOL software. Alternate excitation wavelengths were controlled by this software through an automated filter wheel containing 340 nm and 380 nm band pass filters. Emission images were directed by a dichroic mirror (380 nm cutoff) to a Dage-MTI 72 CCD camera equipped with a Genesis II image intensifier and digitally recorded. Results showed that 30-70% of Hollex1 cells had a calcium response to calcitonin. Fewer Hollex2 cells showed a response (1-5%).

The plasmid pHOLLEX was deposited as an E. coli XL-1 blue transformant with the American Type Culture Collection, 12301 Parklawn Drive, Rockville, Md. on Sep. 1, 1992 as Accession No. 69067.

EXAMPLE III

BHK cells expressing the cloned calcitonin receptor were assayed to determine their response to extracellular calcium. Cells were washed three times with a buffer (140 mM NaCl, 5 mM KCl, 0.5 mM MgCl₂, 0.5 mM CaCl₂ (concentration varied in some experiments), 10 mM glucose, 10 mM HEPES, pH 7.4) made using high purity salts (Aldrich, Milwaukee, Wis.) and sterile water (Baxter, McGaw Park, Ill.). Cells were loaded with fura-2 AM (Molecular Probes Inc.) (10 μg/ml) for 30 minutes essentially as described above, then washed an additional three times. Slides were mounted at room temperature on an inverted microscope (EPIPHOT, Nikon), and a field of cells (typically 20-30 cells) was located using a 40× Nikon fluor objective. The ratio of fura-2 emission at excitation wavelengths of 340 and 380 nm was recorded every 5 seconds. Individual cells were analyzed on a computer workstation (Sun Microsystems) using a software system designed for ratio imaging (Inovision). The concentration of calcium chloride in buffers was determined by comparison to calcium standards on a calcium analyzer (Nova Biomedical Corp. Waltham, Mass.). All experiments were reproduced three to eight times. Fura-2 ratio 340 nm to 380 nm values (R) were converted to Ca²⁺ !_(i) concentrations after calibration of the instrument using the formula: calcium (nm)=2240 R-0.3)/(20-R)!. Basal Ca²⁺ !_(i) concentrations were typically 80-150 nm. The peak fura-2 ratios 340/380 of individual cells exposed to 20 nm salmon calcitonin followed by 25 mM calcium chloride were averaged for some experiments and converted to Ca²⁺ !_(i) concentrations. Standard error was calculated at a 99% level using a Z score of 2.58 (n>30).

A transfected BHK cell line expressing about 700,000 calcitonin receptors/cell showed maximal transient Ca²⁺ !_(i) increases with 10-20 nm salmon or human calcitonin. Application of 25 mM extracellular calcium chloride to the same cells (following a five-minute period of darkness to reduce the total exposure of cells to UV light) with or without calcitonin pretreatment produced a rapid and sustained increase in Ca²⁺ !_(i). The magnitude of the latter response was comparable to that induced by calcitonin and was not significantly altered (p<0.01) by calcitonin pretreatment. The response to 25 mM extracellular calcium chloride returned to an elevated basal level in about 20 minutes. Addition of 25 mM extracellular calcium for two minutes followed by a continuous wash with cell buffer resulted in a rapid and transient increase in Ca²⁺ !_(i). Addition of 73 mM KCl instead of CaCl₂ had no effect.

Transfected BHK cell lines expressing human calcitonin receptor levels of 100,000 and 150,000 receptors/cell were also assayed. Both cell lines responded to calcitonin and extracellular calcium with increases in Ca²⁺ !_(i). These cells showed a marked potentiation of the response to extracellular calcium by calcitonin pretreatment. Control BHK cell lines showed no response to extracellular calcium.

The peak Ca²⁺ !_(i) of single cells in response to both calcitonin and extracellular calcium was averaged (± S.E. at p<0.01) for each cell line expressing the calcitonin receptor. The average peak responses were proportional to the average number of receptors per cell expressed by a given cell line.

The dose response to extracellular calcium was characterized in the cell line expressing 700,000 receptors/cell. A significant response was observed with as little as a 2 mM increase in extracellular calcium over basal (1.3 mM ), and maximum response occurred at approximately 14 mM. The effective concentration for half-maximal response was 8-10 mM as determined from an apparently linear double reciprocal plot of extracellular calcium concentration vs. area of response under each curve. These dose-response concentrations of extracellular calcium are similar to those reported to induce elevated Ca²⁺ !_(i) in isolated osteoclasts.

It is evident from the above results that the subject invention provides cloned human calcitonin receptors and cells which express the cloned receptors. The vectors containing the cloned sequences and cells which express them find use in, inter alia, methods for screening and identifying agonists useful in treating and preventing osteoporosis and other diseases characterized by abnormal bone resorption. Furthermore, the invention provides economical methods to prepare human calcitonin receptors, conveniently from large scale expression systems.

All publications and patent applications mentioned in this specification are indicative of the level of skill of those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains. All publications, patents and patent applications are herein incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication, patent or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated herein by reference.

Although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail by way of illustration and example for purposes of clarity of understanding, it will be obvious that certain changes and modifications may be practiced within the scope of the appended claims.

    __________________________________________________________________________     SEQUENCE LISTING                                                               (1) GENERAL INFORMATION:                                                       (iii) NUMBER OF SEQUENCES: 27                                                  (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:1:                                               (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 3012 base pairs                                                    (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (ii) MOLECULE TYPE: cDNA                                                       (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: pHOLLEX                                                             (ix) FEATURE:                                                                  (A) NAME/KEY: CDS                                                              (B) LOCATION: 52..1476                                                         (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:1:                                        GAATTCGCGGCCGCCAGAATTCCAGGACAAAGAGATCTTCAAAAATCAAAAATGAGG57                    MetArg                                                                         TTCACATTTACAAGCCGGTGCTTGGCACTGTTTCTTCTTCTAAATCAC105                            PheThrPheThrSerArgCysLeuAlaLeuPheLeuLeuLeuAsnHis                               51015                                                                          CCAACCCCAATTCTTCCTGCCTTTTCAAATCAAACCTATCCAACAATA153                            ProThrProIleLeuProAlaPheSerAsnGlnThrTyrProThrIle                               202530                                                                         GAGCCCAAGCCATTTCTTTACGTCGTAGGACGAAAGAAGATGATGGAT201                            GluProLysProPheLeuTyrValValGlyArgLysLysMetMetAsp                               35404550                                                                       GCACAGTACAAATGCTATGACCGAATGCAGCAGTTACCCGCATACCAA249                            AlaGlnTyrLysCysTyrAspArgMetGlnGlnLeuProAlaTyrGln                               556065                                                                         GGAGAAGGTCCATATTGCAATCGCACCTGGGATGGATGGCTGTGCTGG297                            GlyGluGlyProTyrCysAsnArgThrTrpAspGlyTrpLeuCysTrp                               707580                                                                         GATGACACACCGGCTGGAGTATTGTCCTATCAGTTCTGCCCAGATTAT345                            AspAspThrProAlaGlyValLeuSerTyrGlnPheCysProAspTyr                               859095                                                                         TTTCCGGATTTTGATCCATCAGAAAAGGTTACAAAATACTGTGATGAA393                            PheProAspPheAspProSerGluLysValThrLysTyrCysAspGlu                               100105110                                                                      AAAGGTGTTTGGTTTAAACATCCTGAAAACAATCGAACCTGGTCCAAC441                            LysGlyValTrpPheLysHisProGluAsnAsnArgThrTrpSerAsn                               115120125130                                                                   TATACTATGTGCAATGCTTTCACTCCTGAGAAACTGAAGAATGCATAT489                            TyrThrMetCysAsnAlaPheThrProGluLysLeuLysAsnAlaTyr                               135140145                                                                      GTTCTGTACTATTTGGCTATTGTGGGTCATTCTTTGTCAATTTTCACC537                            ValLeuTyrTyrLeuAlaIleValGlyHisSerLeuSerIlePheThr                               150155160                                                                      CTAGTGATTTCCCTGGGGATTTTCGTGTTTTTCAGGAGCCTTGGCTGC585                            LeuValIleSerLeuGlyIlePheValPhePheArgSerLeuGlyCys                               165170175                                                                      CAAAGGGTAACCCTGCACAAGAACATGTTTCTTACTTACATTCTGAAT633                            GlnArgValThrLeuHisLysAsnMetPheLeuThrTyrIleLeuAsn                               180185190                                                                      TCTATGATTATCATCATCCACCTGGTTGAAGTAGTACCCAATGGAGAG681                            SerMetIleIleIleIleHisLeuValGluValValProAsnGlyGlu                               195200205210                                                                   CTCGTGCGAAGGGACCCGGTGAGCTGCAAGATTTTGCATTTTTTCCAC729                            LeuValArgArgAspProValSerCysLysIleLeuHisPhePheHis                               215220225                                                                      CAGTACATGATGGCCTGCAACTATTTCTGGATGCTCTGTGAAGGGATC777                            GlnTyrMetMetAlaCysAsnTyrPheTrpMetLeuCysGluGlyIle                               230235240                                                                      TATCTTCATACACTCATTGTCGTGGCTGTGTTTACTGAGAAGCAACGC825                            TyrLeuHisThrLeuIleValValAlaValPheThrGluLysGlnArg                               245250255                                                                      TTGCGGTGGTATTATCTCTTGGGCTGGGGGTTCCCGCTGGTGCCAACC873                            LeuArgTrpTyrTyrLeuLeuGlyTrpGlyPheProLeuValProThr                               260265270                                                                      ACTATCCATGCTATTACCAGGGCCGTGTACTTCAATGACAACTGCTGG921                            ThrIleHisAlaIleThrArgAlaValTyrPheAsnAspAsnCysTrp                               275280285290                                                                   CTGAGTGTGGAAACCCATTTGCTTTACATAATCCATGGACCTGTCATG969                            LeuSerValGluThrHisLeuLeuTyrIleIleHisGlyProValMet                               295300305                                                                      GCGGCACTTGTGGTCAATTTCTTCTTTTTGCTCAACATTGTCCGGGTG1017                           AlaAlaLeuValValAsnPhePhePheLeuLeuAsnIleValArgVal                               310315320                                                                      CTTGTGACCAAAATGAGGGAAACCCATGAGGCGGAATCCCACATGTAC1065                           LeuValThrLysMetArgGluThrHisGluAlaGluSerHisMetTyr                               325330335                                                                      CTGAAGGCTGTGAAGGCCACCATGATCCTTGTGCCCCTGCTGGGAATC1113                           LeuLysAlaValLysAlaThrMetIleLeuValProLeuLeuGlyIle                               340345350                                                                      CAGTTTGTCGTCTTTCCCTGGAGACCTTCCAACAAGATGCTTGGGAAG1161                           GlnPheValValPheProTrpArgProSerAsnLysMetLeuGlyLys                               355360365370                                                                   ATATATGATTACGTGATGCACTCTCTGATTCATTTCCAGGGCTTCTTT1209                           IleTyrAspTyrValMetHisSerLeuIleHisPheGlnGlyPhePhe                               375380385                                                                      GTTGCGACCATCTACTGCTTCTGCAACAATGAGGTCCAAACCACCGTG1257                           ValAlaThrIleTyrCysPheCysAsnAsnGluValGlnThrThrVal                               390395400                                                                      AAGCGCCAATGGGCCCAATTCAAAATTCAGTGGAACCAGCGTTGGGGG1305                           LysArgGlnTrpAlaGlnPheLysIleGlnTrpAsnGlnArgTrpGly                               405410415                                                                      AGGCGCCCCTCCAACCGCTCTGCTCGCGCTGCAGCCGCTGCTGCGGAG1353                           ArgArgProSerAsnArgSerAlaArgAlaAlaAlaAlaAlaAlaGlu                               420425430                                                                      GCTGGCGACATCCCAATTTACATCTGCCATCAGGAGCTGAGGAATGAA1401                           AlaGlyAspIleProIleTyrIleCysHisGlnGluLeuArgAsnGlu                               435440445450                                                                   CCAGCCAACAACCAAGGCGAGGAGAGTGCTGAGATCATCCCTTTGAAT1449                           ProAlaAsnAsnGlnGlyGluGluSerAlaGluIleIleProLeuAsn                               455460465                                                                      ATCATAGAGCAAGAGTCATCTGCTTGAATGTAAGGCAAACACAGCATCGTGATC1503                     IleIleGluGlnGluSerSerAla                                                       470475                                                                         ACTGAGCCATCATTTCCTGGGAGAAAGACCATGCATTTAAAGTATTCTCCATCCTCCCAG1563               GAACCGAACATATCATTTGTGAAGAATTATTCAGTGAATTTGTCCATTGTAAATCTGAAG1623               AAAGTTATTCTTGGTACTGTTGCTTTGGGAGACAGTCTAGGAATGGAGTCTCCCACTGCA1683               ACTTGTGAACTCCATCATTCATCCAGGACTGAGATGCAAATGTCACAGTAATGCAAGCAA1743               AGTATCAAAGAAAAACAATGAAATTGACCTAGTTCAGATACAGGGTGCTCCTTGTCAATA1803               CTGAGCCATTTATACCTTTGAAATATTAAAATCACTGTCAATATTTTTATTTTTAACTCT1863               GGATTTTGAATTAGATTATTTCTGTATTTGGCTATGGATCTGATTTTTAATTTTTTTAAA1923               TTTCAGTCAATTCTGATGTTACTGAGATGTTTTACCATCCTTACAATGTAAACCACATGA1983               ACTACGTGACCTCTGCAAGACAAAGCGGCTTTCTAATAGAGAGATTAGTAAATATGTGAA2043               GAAAAAGACCTGCATTTGGCAGAAGATGTATGCTTTGAATGCAAAAGAAATTTAGAGTCA2103               ATTTGCTGAAAACATTACATGCTCAGCTTGGTTTTGGACAAGCCTGTCCATTGGGCAGGA2163               CCTAGCTGTTGTAAAGAATTGGTCTTAATGTTGAATGTATTTTGGTTGCTGATGTTTATA2223               AACTGAGAGGTCACAAAGAATCTATCACTAAAAATTTTTACAAAACTGCCAAAAATATAA2283               TTCTTAGTGGAAGACAATACTCCCTTTAAAGAGAGTTTGCCACTCCCCTAAACTCCAGGA2343               TTTATAAAGCAAATTACTCCAAGGTTTATAAAGCAGATTACCTCTTGCCCTTGGGTGCTA2403               TCTAGCAGTAAAAGATAAATTTGTTGAATATTGGTAATTAAAAGACTCCACATAAGTCCA2463               TTAACTGCTTTCCACCCAGCTTCAAAGTCCAAAAAGAGCTCAGGCTTTTCCAGGAAGATC2523               CAGGAGGGCTAATTAGAAATCAACTTGTGGTTGACCGCTTGTTTCTTGTTATTACCAAAC2583               AGGAGGGGAAAAAATTAACTGCTCCAAATTTAACCATAAATCAATTCATGTTTAACGTTT2643               CTCATTAAAATCCAGTATTATATTATCATATCTCTCTTTACTTCCCAGTATAAGATTTTT2703               GAAAATCCTGAATAAACCAGTATCGTTACTGGCACCTGAAATTAATTTGTGAATTTGCAA2763               CAGTAATCAGAGTTACCATTATTTAATTTGTATGCTAAATGAGGAGGTACATTGAAACCC2823               TCCAAATCTCCAGTCTCATCTATGTCATATTTTGCCACTGCCTTTCAGAAGTGATTTAGT2883               TGTGGAAAGATAATAAATTGATTTGTTATGGTTACATATTTAGCGCACCCAGAGAAAATT2943               AATTATATTTCTACAGAGAAAATGAATTTGGGATACTAAAGTAGTTTAAGTCTCCTTTAC3003               TGAATGAAA3012                                                                  (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:2:                                               (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 474 amino acids                                                    (B) TYPE: amino acid                                                           (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (ii) MOLECULE TYPE: protein                                                    (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:2:                                        MetArgPheThrPheThrSerArgCysLeuAlaLeuPheLeuLeuLeu                               151015                                                                         AsnHisProThrProIleLeuProAlaPheSerAsnGlnThrTyrPro                               202530                                                                         ThrIleGluProLysProPheLeuTyrValValGlyArgLysLysMet                               354045                                                                         MetAspAlaGlnTyrLysCysTyrAspArgMetGlnGlnLeuProAla                               505560                                                                         TyrGlnGlyGluGlyProTyrCysAsnArgThrTrpAspGlyTrpLeu                               65707580                                                                       CysTrpAspAspThrProAlaGlyValLeuSerTyrGlnPheCysPro                               859095                                                                         AspTyrPheProAspPheAspProSerGluLysValThrLysTyrCys                               100105110                                                                      AspGluLysGlyValTrpPheLysHisProGluAsnAsnArgThrTrp                               115120125                                                                      SerAsnTyrThrMetCysAsnAlaPheThrProGluLysLeuLysAsn                               130135140                                                                      AlaTyrValLeuTyrTyrLeuAlaIleValGlyHisSerLeuSerIle                               145150155160                                                                   PheThrLeuValIleSerLeuGlyIlePheValPhePheArgSerLeu                               165170175                                                                      GlyCysGlnArgValThrLeuHisLysAsnMetPheLeuThrTyrIle                               180185190                                                                      LeuAsnSerMetIleIleIleIleHisLeuValGluValValProAsn                               195200205                                                                      GlyGluLeuValArgArgAspProValSerCysLysIleLeuHisPhe                               210215220                                                                      PheHisGlnTyrMetMetAlaCysAsnTyrPheTrpMetLeuCysGlu                               225230235240                                                                   GlyIleTyrLeuHisThrLeuIleValValAlaValPheThrGluLys                               245250255                                                                      GlnArgLeuArgTrpTyrTyrLeuLeuGlyTrpGlyPheProLeuVal                               260265270                                                                      ProThrThrIleHisAlaIleThrArgAlaValTyrPheAsnAspAsn                               275280285                                                                      CysTrpLeuSerValGluThrHisLeuLeuTyrIleIleHisGlyPro                               290295300                                                                      ValMetAlaAlaLeuValValAsnPhePhePheLeuLeuAsnIleVal                               305310315320                                                                   ArgValLeuValThrLysMetArgGluThrHisGluAlaGluSerHis                               325330335                                                                      MetTyrLeuLysAlaValLysAlaThrMetIleLeuValProLeuLeu                               340345350                                                                      GlyIleGlnPheValValPheProTrpArgProSerAsnLysMetLeu                               355360365                                                                      GlyLysIleTyrAspTyrValMetHisSerLeuIleHisPheGlnGly                               370375380                                                                      PhePheValAlaThrIleTyrCysPheCysAsnAsnGluValGlnThr                               385390395400                                                                   ThrValLysArgGlnTrpAlaGlnPheLysIleGlnTrpAsnGlnArg                               405410415                                                                      TrpGlyArgArgProSerAsnArgSerAlaArgAlaAlaAlaAlaAla                               420425430                                                                      AlaGluAlaGlyAspIleProIleTyrIleCysHisGlnGluLeuArg                               435440445                                                                      AsnGluProAlaAsnAsnGlnGlyGluGluSerAlaGluIleIlePro                               450455460                                                                      LeuAsnIleIleGluGlnGluSerSerAla                                                 465470                                                                         (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:3:                                               (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 71 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC982                                                               (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:3:                                        AATTCCCCTCCCGCGAAGGCGTCGGCGCGGGGCTGGCGTAGGGCCTGCGTCAGCTGCAGC60                 CCGCCGGAGCT71                                                                  (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:4:                                               (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 63 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC983                                                               (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:4:                                        CCGGCGGGCTGCAGCTGACGCAGGCCCTACGCCAGCCCCGCGCCGACGCCTTCGCGGGAG60                 GGG63                                                                          (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:5:                                               (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 33 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC1773                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:5:                                        AATTAGGGAGACCGGAATTCTGTGCTCTGTCAA33                                            (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:6:                                               (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 33 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC1774                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:6:                                        AATTTTGACAGAGCACAGAATTCCGGTCTCCCT33                                            (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:7:                                               (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 38 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC3509                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:7:                                        CAAATTGACGTCATGGTAAAAATTGACGTCATGGTAAG38                                       (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:8:                                               (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 46 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC3510                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:8:                                        AATTCTTACCATGACGTCAATTTTTACCATGACGTCAATTTGAGCT46                               (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:9:                                               (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 42 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC4418                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:9:                                        TTAATTAAGGACTCTCCTGCAGTGGATGCCTTAATTAATGCA42                                   (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:10:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 42 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC4419                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:10:                                       TTAATTAAGGCATCCACTGCAGGAGAGTCCTTAATTAATGCA42                                   (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:11:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 26 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC4698                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:11:                                       ACTCTCCGGTTRCARAARCARTADAT26                                                   (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:12:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 26 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC4699                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:12:                                       CATCCACGGCAYAARAAYATGTTYYT26                                                   (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:13:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 11 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC3168                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:13:                                       AATTGAGCTCG11                                                                  (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:14:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 11 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC3169                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:14:                                       AATTCGAGCTC11                                                                  (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:15:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 44 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC2938                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:15:                                       GACAGAGCACAGAATTCACTAGTGAGCTCTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT44                                 (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:16:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 21 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC5471                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:16:                                       TACCCGCATACCAAGGAGAAG21                                                        (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:17:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 22 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC5468                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:17:                                       AAGAGATAATACCACCGCAAGC22                                                       (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:18:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 22 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC5469                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:18:                                       CCATCAGAAAAGGTTACAAAAT22                                                       (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:19:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 22 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC5474                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:19:                                       CACAGAGCATCCAGAAATAGTT22                                                       (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:20:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 35 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC5993                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:20:                                       CAGCCAAGGCTCAATGCCTTCCTGAAAAACACGAA35                                          (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:21:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 53 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC5162                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:21:                                       AATTCTATGATTATCATCATCCACCTGGTTGAAGTAGTACCCAATGGAGACCT53                        (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:22:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 21 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC5470                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:22:                                       TTGCGGTGGTATTATCTCTTG21                                                        (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:23:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 21 base pairs                                                      (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: ZC5465                                                              (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:23:                                       TGTTGGCTGGTTCATTCCTCA21                                                        (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:24:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 3416 base pairs                                                    (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (ii) MOLECULE TYPE: cDNA                                                       (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: pOvex                                                               (ix) FEATURE:                                                                  (A) NAME/KEY: CDS                                                              (B) LOCATION: 52..594                                                          (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:24:                                       GAATTCGCGGCCGCCAGAATTCCAGGACAAAGAGATCTTCAAAAATCAAAAATGAGG57                    MetArg                                                                         1                                                                              TTCACATTTACAAGCCGGTGCTTGGCACTGTTTCTTCTTCTAAATCAC105                            PheThrPheThrSerArgCysLeuAlaLeuPheLeuLeuLeuAsnHis                               51015                                                                          CCAACCCCAATTCTTCCTGCCTTTTCAAATCAAACCTATCCAACAATA153                            ProThrProIleLeuProAlaPheSerAsnGlnThrTyrProThrIle                               202530                                                                         GAGCCCAAGCCATTTCTTTACGTCGTAGGACGAAAGAAGATGATGGAT201                            GluProLysProPheLeuTyrValValGlyArgLysLysMetMetAsp                               35404550                                                                       GCACAGTACAAATGCTATGACCGAATGCAGCAGTTACCCGCATACCAA249                            AlaGlnTyrLysCysTyrAspArgMetGlnGlnLeuProAlaTyrGln                               556065                                                                         GGAGAAGGTCCATATTGCAATCGCACCTGGGATGGATGGCTGTGCTGG297                            GlyGluGlyProTyrCysAsnArgThrTrpAspGlyTrpLeuCysTrp                               707580                                                                         GATGACACACCGGCTGGAGTATTGTCCTATCAGTTCTGCCCAGATTAT345                            AspAspThrProAlaGlyValLeuSerTyrGlnPheCysProAspTyr                               859095                                                                         TTTCCGGATTTTGATCCATCAGAAAAGGTTACAAAATACTGTGATGAA393                            PheProAspPheAspProSerGluLysValThrLysTyrCysAspGlu                               100105110                                                                      AAAGGTGTTTGGTTTAAACATCCTGAAAACAATCGAACCTGGTCCAAC441                            LysGlyValTrpPheLysHisProGluAsnAsnArgThrTrpSerAsn                               115120125130                                                                   TATACTATGTGCAATGCTTTCACTCCTGAGAAACTGAAGAATGCATAT489                            TyrThrMetCysAsnAlaPheThrProGluLysLeuLysAsnAlaTyr                               135140145                                                                      GTTCTGTACTATTTGGCTATTGTGGGTCATTCTTTGTCAATTTTCACC537                            ValLeuTyrTyrLeuAlaIleValGlyHisSerLeuSerIlePheThr                               150155160                                                                      CTAGTGATTTCCCTGGGGATTTTCGTGTTTTTCAGTTCTCATGTTTAT585                            LeuValIleSerLeuGlyIlePheValPhePheSerSerHisValTyr                               165170175                                                                      CATGAATAACACGTGATCCTAGGAGCCTTGGCTGCCAAAGGGTAACCCTGCACAAG641                    HisGlu                                                                         180                                                                            AACATGTTTCTTACTTACATTCTGAATTCTATGATTATCATCATCCACCTGGTTGAAGTA701                GTACCCAATGGAGAGCTCGTGCGAAGGGACCCGGTGAGCTGCAAGATTTTGCATTTTTTC761                CACCAGTACATGATGGCCTGCAACTATTTCTGGATGCTCTGTGAAGGGATCTATCTTCAT821                ACACTCATTGTCGTGGCTGTGTTTACTGAGAAGCAACGCTTGCGGTGGTATTATCTCTTG881                GGCTGGGGGTTCCCGCTGGTGCCAACCACTATCCATGCTATTACCAGGGCCGTGTACTTC941                AATGACAACTGCTGGCTGAGTGTGGAAACCCATTTGCTTTACATAATCCATGGACCTGTC1001               ATGGCGGCACTTGTGGTCAATTTCTTCTTTTTGCTCAACATTGTCCGGGTGCTTGTGACC1061               AAAATGAGGGAAACCCATGAGGCGGAATCCCACATGTACCTGAAGGCTGTGAAGGCCACC1121               ATGATCCTTGTGCCCCTGCTGGGAATCCAGTTTGTCGTCTTTCCCTGGAGACCTTCCAAC1181               AAGATGCTTGGGAAGATATATGATTACGTGATGCACTCTCTGATTCATTTCCAGGGCTTC1241               TTTGTTGCGACCATCTACTGCTTCTGCAACAATGAGGTCCAAACCACCGTGAAGCGCCAA1301               TGGGCCCAATTCAAAATTCAGTGGAACCAGCGTTGGGGGAGGCGCCCCTCCAACCGCTCT1361               GCTCGCGCTGCAGCCGCTGCTGCGGAGGCTGGCGACATCCCAATTTACATCTGCCATCAG1421               GAGCTGAGGAATGAACCAGCCAACAACCAAGGCGAGGAGAGTGCTGAGATCATCCCTTTG1481               AATATCATAGAGCAAGAGTCATCTGCTTGAATGTGAAGGCAAACACAGCATCGTGATCAC1541               TGAGCCATCATTTCCTGGGAGAAAGACCATGCATTTAAAGTATTCTCCATCCTCCCAGGA1601               ACCGAACATATCATTTGTGAAGAATTATTCAGTGAATTTGTCCATTGTAAATCTGAAGAA1661               AGTTATTCTTGGTACTGTTGCTTTGGGAGACAGTCTAGGAATGGAGTCTCCCACTGCAAC1721               TTGTGAACTCCATCATTCATCCAGGACTGAGATGCAAATGTCACAGTAATGCAAGCAAAG1781               TATCAAAGAAAAACAATGAAATTGACCTAGTTCAGATACAGGGTGCTCCTTGTCAATACT1841               GAGCCATTTATACCTTTGAAATATTAAAATCACTGTCAATATTTTTATTTTTAACTCTGG1901               ATTTTGAATTAGATTATTTCTGTATTTGGCTATGGATCTGATTTTTAATTTTTTTAAATT1961               TCAGTCAATTCTGATGTTACTGAGATGTTTTACCATCCTTACAATGTAAACCACATGAAC2021               TACGTGACCTCTGCAAGACAAAGCGGCTTTCTAATAGAGAGATTAGTAAATATGTGAAGA2081               AAAAGACCTGCATTTGGCAGGAAGATGTATGCTTTGAATGCAAAAGAAATTTAGAGTCAA2141               TTTGCTGAAAACATTACATGCTCAGCTTGGTTTTGGACAAGCCTGTCCATTGGGCAGGAC2201               CTAGCTGTTGTAAAGAATTGGTCTTAATGTTGAATGTATTTTGGTTGCTGATGTTTATAA2261               ACTGAGAGGTCACAAAGAATCTATCACTAAAAATTTTTACAAAACTGCCAAAAATATAAT2321               TCTTAGTGGAAGACAATACTCCCTTTAAAGAGAGTTTGCCACTCCCCTAAACTCCAGGAT2381               TTATAAAGCAAATTACTCCAAGGTTTATAAAGCAGATTACCTCTTGCCCTTGGGTGCTAT2441               CTAGCAGTAAAAGATAAATTTGTTGAATATTGGTAATTAAAAGACTCCACATAAGTCCAT2501               TAACTGCTTTCCACCCAGCTTCAAAGCTTAAAAAGAGCTCAGGCTTTTCCAGGAAGATCC2561               AGGAGGGCTAATTAGAAATCAACTTGTGGTTGACCGCTTGTTTCTTGTTATTACCAAACA2621               GGAGGGGAAAAAATTAACTGCTCCAAATTTAACCATAAATCAATTCATGTTTAACGTTTC2681               TCATTAAAATCCAGTATTATATTATCATATCTCTCTTTACTTCCCAGTATAAGATTTTTG2741               AAAATCCTGAATAAACCAGTATCGTTACTGGCACCTGAAATTAATTTGTGAATTTGCAAC2801               AGTAATCAGAGTTACCATTATTTAATTTGTATGCTAAATGAGGAGGTACATTGAAACCCT2861               CCAAATCTCCAGTCTCATCTATGTCATATTTTGCCACTGCCTTTCAGAAGTGATTTAGTT2921               GTGGAAAGATAATAAATTGATTTGTTATGGTTACATATTTAGCGCACCCAGAGAAAATTA2981               ATTATATTTCTACAGAGAAAATGAATTTGGGATACTAAAGTAGTTTAAGTCTCCTTTACT3041               GAATGTAAGGGGGGGATCGAAAAGAAGGTATTTTTCCAATCACAGTGTTATGTAGTATTG3101               TTCTATTTTTGTTTACAAACATGGAAAACAGAGTATTTCTGGCAGCTGTGGTACAAATGT3161               GATAATATATTGCTAAAATATTTTAGATGTTATTATGCTAATATAGTAGGGGTTGAAGAA3221               AACAAAATAGCTTATTATAGAATTGCACATAGTTCTGCCCAAATTATGTGAAATGCTTAT3281               GCTTGTGTATATGTATAAATTAATACAGAGTACGTTAAAAGCAAAAAGATGTATATTTGC3341               ATATTTTTCTAAAGAAATATATTATTCATCTTTTCATTCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGAGCTC3401               AATTCCCGGGGATCC3416                                                            (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:25:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 180 amino acids                                                    (B) TYPE: amino acid                                                           (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (ii) MOLECULE TYPE: protein                                                    (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:25:                                       MetArgPheThrPheThrSerArgCysLeuAlaLeuPheLeuLeuLeu                               151015                                                                         AsnHisProThrProIleLeuProAlaPheSerAsnGlnThrTyrPro                               202530                                                                         ThrIleGluProLysProPheLeuTyrValValGlyArgLysLysMet                               354045                                                                         MetAspAlaGlnTyrLysCysTyrAspArgMetGlnGlnLeuProAla                               505560                                                                         TyrGlnGlyGluGlyProTyrCysAsnArgThrTrpAspGlyTrpLeu                               65707580                                                                       CysTrpAspAspThrProAlaGlyValLeuSerTyrGlnPheCysPro                               859095                                                                         AspTyrPheProAspPheAspProSerGluLysValThrLysTyrCys                               100105110                                                                      AspGluLysGlyValTrpPheLysHisProGluAsnAsnArgThrTrp                               115120125                                                                      SerAsnTyrThrMetCysAsnAlaPheThrProGluLysLeuLysAsn                               130135140                                                                      AlaTyrValLeuTyrTyrLeuAlaIleValGlyHisSerLeuSerIle                               145150155160                                                                   PheThrLeuValIleSerLeuGlyIlePheValPhePheSerSerHis                               165170175                                                                      ValTyrHisGlu                                                                   180                                                                            (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:26:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 3390 base pairs                                                    (B) TYPE: nucleic acid                                                         (C) STRANDEDNESS: single                                                       (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (ii) MOLECULE TYPE: cDNA                                                       (vii) IMMEDIATE SOURCE:                                                        (B) CLONE: plaex                                                               (ix) FEATURE:                                                                  (A) NAME/KEY: CDS                                                              (B) LOCATION: 52..1485                                                         (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:26:                                       GAATTCGCGGCCGCCAGAATTCCAGGACAAAGAGATCTTCAAAAATCAAAAATGAGG57                    MetArg                                                                         1                                                                              TTCACATTTACAAGCCGGTGCTTGGCACTGTTTCTTCTTCTAAATCAC105                            PheThrPheThrSerArgCysLeuAlaLeuPheLeuLeuLeuAsnHis                               51015                                                                          CCAACCCCAATTCTTCCTGCCTTTTCAAATCAAACCTATCCAACAATA153                            ProThrProIleLeuProAlaPheSerAsnGlnThrTyrProThrIle                               202530                                                                         GAGCCCAAGCCATTTCTTTACGTCGTAGGACGAAAGAAGATGATGGAT201                            GluProLysProPheLeuTyrValValGlyArgLysLysMetMetAsp                               35404550                                                                       GCACAGTACAAATGCTATGACCGAATGCAGCAGTTACCCGCATACCAA249                            AlaGlnTyrLysCysTyrAspArgMetGlnGlnLeuProAlaTyrGln                               556065                                                                         GGAGAAGGTCCATATTGCAATCGCACCTGGGATGGATGGCTGTGCTGG297                            GlyGluGlyProTyrCysAsnArgThrTrpAspGlyTrpLeuCysTrp                               707580                                                                         GATGACACACCGGCTGGAGTATTGTCCTATCAGTTCTGCCCAGATTAT345                            AspAspThrProAlaGlyValLeuSerTyrGlnPheCysProAspTyr                               859095                                                                         TTTCCGGATTTTGATCCATCAGAAAAGGTTACAAAATACTGTGATGAA393                            PheProAspPheAspProSerGluLysValThrLysTyrCysAspGlu                               100105110                                                                      AAAGGTGTTTGGTTTAAACATCCTGAAAACAATCGAACCTGGTCCAAC441                            LysGlyValTrpPheLysHisProGluAsnAsnArgThrTrpSerAsn                               115120125130                                                                   TATACTATGTGCAATGCTTTCACTCCTGAGAAACTGAAGAATGCATAT489                            TyrThrMetCysAsnAlaPheThrProGluLysLeuLysAsnAlaTyr                               135140145                                                                      GTTCTGTACTATTTGGCTATTGTGGGTCATTCTTTGTCAATTTTCACC537                            ValLeuTyrTyrLeuAlaIleValGlyHisSerLeuSerIlePheThr                               150155160                                                                      CTAGTGATTTCCCTGGGGATTTTCGTGTTTTTCAGGAAGGCATTGAGC585                            LeuValIleSerLeuGlyIlePheValPhePheArgLysAlaLeuSer                               165170175                                                                      CTTGGCTGCCAAAGGGTAACCCTGCACAAGAACATGTTTCTTACTTAC633                            LeuGlyCysGlnArgValThrLeuHisLysAsnMetPheLeuThrTyr                               180185190                                                                      ATTCTGAATTCTATGATTATCATCATCCACCTGGTTGAAGTAGTACCC681                            IleLeuAsnSerMetIleIleIleIleHisLeuValGluValValPro                               195200205210                                                                   AATGGAGAGCTCGTGCGAAGGGACCCGGTGAGCTGCAAGATTTTGCAT729                            AsnGlyGluLeuValArgArgAspProValSerCysLysIleLeuHis                               215220225                                                                      TTTTTCCACCAGTACATGATGGCCTGCAACTATTTCTGGATGCTCTGT777                            PhePheHisGlnTyrMetMetAlaCysAsnTyrPheTrpMetLeuCys                               230235240                                                                      GAAGGGATCTATCTTCATACACTCATTGTCGTGGCTGTGTTTACTGAG825                            GluGlyIleTyrLeuHisThrLeuIleValValAlaValPheThrGlu                               245250255                                                                      AAGCAACGCTTGCGGTGGTATTATCTCTTGGGCTGGGGGTTCCCGCTG873                            LysGlnArgLeuArgTrpTyrTyrLeuLeuGlyTrpGlyPheProLeu                               260265270                                                                      GTGCCAACCACTATCCATGCTATTACCAGGGCCGTGTACTTCAATGAC921                            ValProThrThrIleHisAlaIleThrArgAlaValTyrPheAsnAsp                               275280285290                                                                   AACTGCTGGCTGAGTGTGGAAACCCATTTGCTTTACATAATCCATGGA969                            AsnCysTrpLeuSerValGluThrHisLeuLeuTyrIleIleHisGly                               295300305                                                                      CCTGTCATGGCGGCACTTGTGGTCAATTTCTTCTTTTTGCTCAACATT1017                           ProValMetAlaAlaLeuValValAsnPhePhePheLeuLeuAsnIle                               310315320                                                                      GTCCGGGTGCTTGTGACCAAAATGAGGGAAACCCATGAGGCGGAATCC1065                           ValArgValLeuValThrLysMetArgGluThrHisGluAlaGluSer                               325330335                                                                      CACATGTACCTGAAGGCTGTGAAGGCCACCATGATCCTTGTGCCCCTG1113                           HisMetTyrLeuLysAlaValLysAlaThrMetIleLeuValProLeu                               340345350                                                                      CTGGGAATCCAGTTTGTCGTCTTTCCCTGGAGACCTTCCAACAAGATG1161                           LeuGlyIleGlnPheValValPheProTrpArgProSerAsnLysMet                               355360365370                                                                   CTTGGGAAGATATATGATTACGTGATGCACTCTCTGATTCATTTCCAG1209                           LeuGlyLysIleTyrAspTyrValMetHisSerLeuIleHisPheGln                               375380385                                                                      GGCTTCTTTGTTGCGACCATCTACTGCTTCTGCAACAATGAGGTCCAA1257                           GlyPhePheValAlaThrIleTyrCysPheCysAsnAsnGluValGln                               390395400                                                                      ACCACCGTGAAGCGCCAATGGGCCCAATTCAAAATTCAGTGGAACCAG1305                           ThrThrValLysArgGlnTrpAlaGlnPheLysIleGlnTrpAsnGln                               405410415                                                                      CGTTGGGGGAGGCGCCCCTCCAACCGCTCTGCTCGCGCTGCAGCCGCT1353                           ArgTrpGlyArgArgProSerAsnArgSerAlaArgAlaAlaAlaAla                               420425430                                                                      GCTGCGGAGGCTGGCGACATCCCAATTTACATCTGCCATCAGGAGCTG1401                           AlaAlaGluAlaGlyAspIleProIleTyrIleCysHisGlnGluLeu                               435440445450                                                                   AGGAATGAACCAGCCAACAACCAAGGCGAGGAGAGTGCTGAGATCATC1449                           ArgAsnGluProAlaAsnAsnGlnGlyGluGluSerAlaGluIleIle                               455460465                                                                      CCTTTGAATATCATAGAGCAAGAGTCATCTGCTTGAATGTGAAGGCAAACACA1502                      ProLeuAsnIleIleGluGlnGluSerSerAla                                              470475                                                                         GCATCGTGATCACTGAGCCATCATTTCCTGGGAGAAAGACCATGCATTTAAAGTATTCTC1562               CATCCTCCCAGGAACCGAACATATCATTTGTGAAGAATTATTCAGTGAATTTGTCCATTG1622               TAAATCTGAAGAAAGTTATTCTTGGTACTGTTGCTTTGGGAGACAGTCTAGGAATGGAGT1682               CTCCCACTGCAACTTGTGAACTCCATCATTCATCCAGGACTGAGATGCAAATGTCACAGT1742               AATGCAAGCAAAGTATCAAAGAAAAACAATGAAATTGACCTAGTTCAGATACAGGGTGCT1802               CCTTGTCAATACTGAGCCATTTATACCTTTGAAATATTAAAATCACTGTCAATATTTTTA1862               TTTTTAACTCTGGATTTTGAATTAGATTATTTCTGTATTTGGCTATGGATCTGATTTTTA1922               ATTTTTTTAAATTTCAGTCAATTCTGATGTTACTGAGATGTTTTACCATCCTTACAATGT1982               AAACCACATGAACTACGTGACCTCTGCAAGACAAAGCGGCTTTCTAATAGAGAGATTAGT2042               AAATATGTGAAGAAAAAGACCTGCATTTGGCAGGAAGATGTATGCTTTGAATGCAAAAGA2102               AATTTAGAGTCAATTTGCTGAAAACATTACATGCTCAGCTTGGTTTTGGACAAGCCTGTC2162               CATTGGGCAGGACCTAGCTGTTGTAAAGAATTGGTCTTAATGTTGAATGTATTTTGGTTG2222               CTGATGTTTATAAACTGAGAGGTCACAAAGAATCTATCACTAAAAATTTTTACAAAACTG2282               CCAAAAATATAATTCTTAGTGGAAGACAATACTCCCTTTAAAGAGAGTTTGCCACTCCCC2342               TAAACTCCAGGATTTATAAAGCAAATTACTCCAAGGTTTATAAAGCAGATTACCTCTTGC2402               CCTTGGGTGCTATCTAGCAGTAAAAGATAAATTTGTTGAATATTGGTAATTAAAAGACTC2462               CACATAAGTCCATTAACTGCTTTCCACCCAGCTTCAAAGCTTAAAAAGAGCTCAGGCTTT2522               TCCAGGAAGATCCAGGAGGGCTAATTAGAAATCAACTTGTGGTTGACCGCTTGTTTCTTG2582               TTATTACCAAACAGGAGGGGAAAAAATTAACTGCTCCAAATTTAACCATAAATCAATTCA2642               TGTTTAACGTTTCTCATTAAAATCCAGTATTATATTATCATATCTCTCTTTACTTCCCAG2702               TATAAGATTTTTGAAAATCCTGAATAAACCAGTATCGTTACTGGCACCTGAAATTAATTT2762               GTGAATTTGCAACAGTAATCAGAGTTACCATTATTTAATTTGTATGCTAAATGAGGAGGT2822               ACATTGAAACCCTCCAAATCTCCAGTCTCATCTATGTCATATTTTGCCACTGCCTTTCAG2882               AAGTGATTTAGTTGTGGAAAGATAATAAATTGATTTGTTATGGTTACATATTTAGCGCAC2942               CCAGAGAAAATTAATTATATTTCTACAGAGAAAATGAATTTGGGATACTAAAGTAGTTTA3002               AGTCTCCTTTACTGAATGTAAGGGGGGGATCGAAAAGAAGGTATTTTTCCAATCACAGTG3062               TTATGTAGTATTGTTCTATTTTTGTTTACAAACATGGAAAACAGAGTATTTCTGGCAGCT3122               GTGGTACAAATGTGATAATATATTGCTAAAATATTTTAGATGTTATTATGCTAATATAGT3182               AGGGGTTGAAGAAAACAAAATAGCTTATTATAGAATTGCACATAGTTCTGCCCAAATTAT3242               GTGAAATGCTTATGCTTGTGTATATGTATAAATTAATACAGAGTACGTTAAAAGCAAAAA3302               GATGTATATTTGCATATTTTTCTAAAGAAATATATTATTCATCTTTTCATTCAAAAAAAA3362               AAAAAAAGAGCTCAATTCCCGGGGATCC3390                                               (2) INFORMATION FOR SEQ ID NO:27:                                              (i) SEQUENCE CHARACTERISTICS:                                                  (A) LENGTH: 477 amino acids                                                    (B) TYPE: amino acid                                                           (D) TOPOLOGY: linear                                                           (ii) MOLECULE TYPE: protein                                                    (xi) SEQUENCE DESCRIPTION: SEQ ID NO:27:                                       MetArgPheThrPheThrSerArgCysLeuAlaLeuPheLeuLeuLeu                               151015                                                                         AsnHisProThrProIleLeuProAlaPheSerAsnGlnThrTyrPro                               202530                                                                         ThrIleGluProLysProPheLeuTyrValValGlyArgLysLysMet                               354045                                                                         MetAspAlaGlnTyrLysCysTyrAspArgMetGlnGlnLeuProAla                               505560                                                                         TyrGlnGlyGluGlyProTyrCysAsnArgThrTrpAspGlyTrpLeu                               65707580                                                                       CysTrpAspAspThrProAlaGlyValLeuSerTyrGlnPheCysPro                               859095                                                                         AspTyrPheProAspPheAspProSerGluLysValThrLysTyrCys                               100105110                                                                      AspGluLysGlyValTrpPheLysHisProGluAsnAsnArgThrTrp                               115120125                                                                      SerAsnTyrThrMetCysAsnAlaPheThrProGluLysLeuLysAsn                               130135140                                                                      AlaTyrValLeuTyrTyrLeuAlaIleValGlyHisSerLeuSerIle                               145150155160                                                                   PheThrLeuValIleSerLeuGlyIlePheValPhePheArgLysAla                               165170175                                                                      LeuSerLeuGlyCysGlnArgValThrLeuHisLysAsnMetPheLeu                               180185190                                                                      ThrTyrIleLeuAsnSerMetIleIleIleIleHisLeuValGluVal                               195200205                                                                      ValProAsnGlyGluLeuValArgArgAspProValSerCysLysIle                               210215220                                                                      LeuHisPhePheHisGlnTyrMetMetAlaCysAsnTyrPheTrpMet                               225230235240                                                                   LeuCysGluGlyIleTyrLeuHisThrLeuIleValValAlaValPhe                               245250255                                                                      ThrGluLysGlnArgLeuArgTrpTyrTyrLeuLeuGlyTrpGlyPhe                               260265270                                                                      ProLeuValProThrThrIleHisAlaIleThrArgAlaValTyrPhe                               275280285                                                                      AsnAspAsnCysTrpLeuSerValGluThrHisLeuLeuTyrIleIle                               290295300                                                                      HisGlyProValMetAlaAlaLeuValValAsnPhePhePheLeuLeu                               305310315320                                                                   AsnIleValArgValLeuValThrLysMetArgGluThrHisGluAla                               325330335                                                                      GluSerHisMetTyrLeuLysAlaValLysAlaThrMetIleLeuVal                               340345350                                                                      ProLeuLeuGlyIleGlnPheValValPheProTrpArgProSerAsn                               355360365                                                                      LysMetLeuGlyLysIleTyrAspTyrValMetHisSerLeuIleHis                               370375380                                                                      PheGlnGlyPhePheValAlaThrIleTyrCysPheCysAsnAsnGlu                               385390395400                                                                   ValGlnThrThrValLysArgGlnTrpAlaGlnPheLysIleGlnTrp                               405410415                                                                      AsnGlnArgTrpGlyArgArgProSerAsnArgSerAlaArgAlaAla                               420425430                                                                      AlaAlaAlaAlaGluAlaGlyAspIleProIleTyrIleCysHisGln                               435440445                                                                      GluLeuArgAsnGluProAlaAsnAsnGlnGlyGluGluSerAlaGlu                               450455460                                                                      IleIleProLeuAsnIleIleGluGlnGluSerSerAla                                        465470475                                                                      __________________________________________________________________________ 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for identifying a human calcitonin receptor ligand which comprises the steps of:exposing the ligand to a ligand binding domain of a human calcitonin receptor encoded by a polynucleotide according to SEQ ID NO: 1 or a naturally occurring allelic variant thereof for a time sufficient to allow binding to said receptor; separating bound ligand and receptor complex; and detecting bound ligand and receptor complex.
 2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the ligand is labeled for detection.
 3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the human calcitonin receptor has an amino acid sequence corresponding to SEQ ID NO:
 2. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the human calcitonin receptor is encoded by (a) the coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1; (b) the coding sequence of SEQ ID NO: 24; or (c) a naturally occurring allelic variant of (a) or (b).
 5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the human calcitonin receptor has an amino acid sequence corresponding to SEQ ID NO:
 25. 6. A method according to claim 1, wherein said ligand binding domain is affixed to a solid support.
 7. A method for identifying a human calcitonin receptor ligand which comprises the steps of:exposing the ligand to a ligand binding domain of (a) a human calcitonin receptor polypeptide having the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 2, (b) a human calcitonin receptor polypeptide having the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 25, (c) a naturally occurring allelic variant of (a) or (b), or (d) a polypeptide having the N-terminal ligand-binding domain, the first transmembrane domain, and the first intracellular domain of (a), (b) or (c), for a time sufficient to allow binding to said receptor; separating bound ligand and receptor complex; and detecting bound ligand and receptor complex. 